When Meryl Streep arrives at a New York hotel to talk about her latest role in The Iron Lady, she has a request. “Be gentle on me, I’m so precariously placed because of all my traveling and I was at the Kennedy Center till 3 o’clock drinking with all these bad, bad men like DeNiro,” the 62-year-old actress says with a conspiratorial smile, referring to fellow acting icon, Robert DeNiro, who presented her with the prestigious Kennedy Center honor at the event.

The sixteen-time Oscar™ nominee has only won the Academy Awards™ twice; in 1979 (supporting actress in Kramer vs. Kramer) and in 1982 (Sophie’s Choice), but critics are predicting the drought will be broken this year with her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, the first female head of government in the West and the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th Century. Streep, wearing a big red turtleneck sweater over black pants, looks more like a librarian than an acting icon with her black glasses perched on her nose, and she is eager to downplay all the fuss, including the all-male show ‘Streep Tease: An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues’ playing a few blocks away. “I’m sure it’s fun but I don’t have any desire to go there and see more of me,” she laughs good-naturedly. “Only once a year I have to plop down and tell all the stories to promote a film, but I really don’t like to necessarily luxuriate in the Meryl Streep of it all!”

Set in present day, The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida (Mamma Mia) Lloyd, spends three days with Margaret Thatcher, now in her ‘80s, in her world of caretakers and conversations with her dead husband Denis (Jim Broadbent). As she packs up his clothes and possessions, she’s thrust back in time, first to memories of her childhood as a grocer’s daughter, and later her political life as she considers the cost her convictions had on the nation, her family and herself.

“When Phyllida brought me in to this story, she said the reason she thought I was perfect to play her was because I would be an outsider and Margaret Thatcher was an outsider in her world too,” Streep explains. “But I did feel nervous the very first day when we walked into rehearsals and there were 45 of the most wonderful British actors waiting for me and they’d all done deep homework on their characters. Never had I felt more like I was from New Jersey than that moment, but they were really generous and gave me the credibility to pull it off.”

Streep acknowledges she did a lot of research and immersed herself in all things Maggie to prepare for the role. “I spoke with so many people who knew her and everybody in England had an opinion so there was no problem finding people to talk,” she says. “I met (former Labor leader) Neil Kinnick, but I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that! And many people were very forthcoming about both her strengths and her character deficits and how she came to pay a price for it all.”
When Streep portrays the elderly Thatcher – who is still alive and living a private life in London - she endured a unique physical challenge on top of the hours in the makeup chair. “We were on a tiny budget with long days so we didn’t have the leisure to rest and I found that standing like an old lady for 12 hours was very painful,” she elaborates. “I thought about Daniel Day Lewis when he did My Left Foot and it felt like the same contortions I was doing. All I wanted was a great masseur, which if you know England, you’ll know there are few and far between!”
Meryl Streep may be loved and revered on a level that Margaret Thatcher could only dream of, but the down-to-earth wife (for 33 years, to sculptor Donald Gummer) and mother of four gives a hearty chuckle when asked if she could also be an Iron Lady at home.

“I’m an ironing lady, that’s what I do,” she says. “Bu you know how in every marriage there is a good cop and a bad cop; guess which one I am? They always went to Daddy to get away with something and there are initials in my house that I didn’t find out until very recently what they meant, which was DTM; it stands for ‘Don’t Tell Mom’!

Movie: The Iron Lady
Genre: drama
Buzz: Streep’s transformation makes her an awards favorite again
Stars: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Rated: TBC
Release: December 26