Who dares tell Meryl Streep how to act? Step up George Clooney

Who dares tell Meryl Streep how to act? Step up George Clooney

Film producers face a delicate balancing act between adding their input and not treading on the creative toes of the director, the writer and the actors. It seems Harvey Weinstein has a new tactic: send in George Clooney.


Weinstein tells me that the Hollywood heartthrob was his secret weapon with his latest film, August: Osage County, to work with the star-heavy cast (Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor are among the big names).

“I knew that there would be inevitable disagreements, and at one point I thought that I would produce the thing myself, but smartness is better than valour so I got another unknown, untested entity named George Clooney to produce the film so he could handle the inevitable arguments and disagreements,” he joked at a screening of the film at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) in London last week.

“George is probably the best producer I’ve ever worked with, because not only does he go to Oklahoma where we shot it, but he’s in the middle of it with a strong opinion.”

The film is a dramatic, twisting, blacker-than-black comedy, which will offer fun for all the dysfunctional family. At the heart of both the on-screen family, based on that of the play by Tracy Letts, and the cast, are Roberts and Streep. And they are a pair that Weinstein says he wasn’t keen to cross.

“Why take your life in your hands? I’d rather ride 300 miles an hour in Monte Carlo in a rain storm than suggest to Meryl Streep how to act. But George will do it, George mixed it up with both of them. He had certain scenes where he said ‘nope, let’s underplay that’ – George and John [Wells, the film’s director] teamed up a bunch of times and said ‘hey, I think underplay this’.”

Weinstein added that one of Streep’s biggest acting talents was disappearing, and recounted a tale of meeting her in a wholesale supermarket near the set in Oklahoma. “She was shopping, just to get the lay of the land, see the people from Oklahoma, she’d go to a mall and she’d just be invisible. Meryl can make herself invisible,” he says. “I’ve seen her do that a lot, Meryl – when she wants to – she can just be under the radar, it’s just incredible to see.

“And Julia, who I thought would easily get spotted, can wear a pair of glasses, put her hair up and put a little beanie on and she disappears too. They both have that chameleon ability. They’re observers, really.”

`````````````````````````````````````

only copied the part that talks about AOC.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Wow, that's fascinating about Meryl and Julia's ability to disappear. Makes me admire them as actors even more. Thanks for article!

and G?

silly girl wrote:Who dares tell Meryl Streep how to act? Step up George Clooney

F
Weinstein added that one of Streep’s biggest acting talents was disappearing, and recounted a tale of meeting her in a wholesale supermarket near the set in Oklahoma. “She was shopping, just to get the lay of the land, see the people from Oklahoma, she’d go to a mall and she’d just be invisible. Meryl can make herself invisible,” he says. “I’ve seen her do that a lot, Meryl – when she wants to – she can just be under the radar, it’s just incredible to see.

OMG ..... I'm so excited about this ... I can do that ... in any place, even where ppl know me well, I can go invisible ... Remember, I wrote about it here on COH... I did it in Venice .....

Meryl and Me .... such good company .... one day we might "go invisible together"     (Thats Meryl bouncing, I'm too cool, obviously)

interesting....
doing what?   

Thanks SG for the artricle