Meryl Streep
Written, Produced & Directed by Jason Goodman
I agreed to do Meryl Streep’s show because I love Meryl Streep. Not only have I been wowed by any number of transformative performances, but she’s a Tribeca neighbor, and one day my wife and I ran into her on the street and made memorable local small talk. What I didn’t think about was how little you know about Meryl – and how much she likes it that way. Listen to her next time you see her out promoting a film – she’s funny, feisty… and she reveals nothing.
Meryl profoundly did not cooperate with Biography – she made sure no one she knew would sit for an interview. I did manage to book her old Yale cohort, playwright Christopher Durang, but only because he didn’t check with Meryl first. So with Meryl’s close friends off-limits, I fell back to the part of Meryl’s life that made me want to tell her story in the first place – her amazing body of work.
Click here to watch my favorite act. Click here to watch the whole show.
Biography: Meryl Streep – My Favorite Act • Written, Produced & Directed by Jason Goodman
I knew a few things about Meryl’s early life, but I never knew about her love affair with John Cazale. John was best known as Fredo in the Godfather Films, but he also had featured roles in Dog Day Afternoon and The Conversation. John and Meryl met doing a “Shakespeare in the Park” production of Measure For Measure, and were soon engaged to be married.
What happened next was the biggest tragedy of Meryl’s life, but one she has never spoken about. When I asked the incredible Liz Smith about Meryl and John, she had forgotten about their love affair completely, although she remembered once I asked the question. Their story has completely vanished into the ether, until I got the chance to shine a light on it. And that’s what I love about documentary filmmaking.
So I started calling every film critic I knew of in New York and started to do interviews. I got lucky when Liz Smith agreed to do an interview, she’s interviewed Meryl a few times and had real insight, and with Bruce Fretts, a writer for TV Guide who had researched the story of Meryl and John Cazale and told the story beautifully. I also want to give credit to my editor, Aimée Lyde, for overall great work and for coming up with a nifty transition effect that we used to death and which made an image-poor show possible.
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[watch the whole show].
Biography: Meryl Streep • Written, Produced & Directed by Jason Goodman
Every show has its special challenges – but I must admit I was a little stumped how you make an hour long Biography when you have a protagonist who is compulsive about her privacy. I had a contract, I had to create a show. The movies themselves were problematic – movie clips average around $6,000 a minute, if they’ll even sell you the rights, and so filling the show up with clips is not an option. Also, with Meryl’s body of work, how could you pick just a couple of films?
