Meryl Streep told she was ‘too ugly’ to play a part in film

By Kate Hassett

Meryl Streep told she was ‘too ugly’ to play a part in film
Meryl Streep was told she was "too ugly" in an audition, to appear in King Kong.

Earlier this week, an unofficial Meryl L. Streep Facebook page posted an image of the actress riding the subway in the late 70’s.

Underneath the image, an inspirational message about never letting go of your dreams and believing in yourself, followed.

It read:

Whilst the photo, and the general story behind the image is true, the information given in this post is not. However, in an interview earlier this year, Streep recounted to Graham Norton that she was indeed cast aside from ‘King Kong’ for not being attractive enough to the Director.

“It was Dino De Laurentiis Senior, and his son had seen me in a play and so I went up to the top of the ‘Gulf and Western Building, like the 33rd floor and he had this amazing office that looked all over Manhattan. I walked in and his son was in there very excited that he’d brought in this new actress.

‘And the father said to his son – in Italian, because I understand Italian – he said “brutta”, you know, “why do you bring me this ugly thing?”

It was very sobering as a young girl. So I said to him…”I understand what you’re saying, I’m sorry I’m not beautiful enough to be in King Kong.”

Whilst Streep sees the humour in it now, she told Graham Norton in January that “young actors should take solace” knowing that there was a time where even a legendary actress had a bad audition.

Whilst the original post was seemingly misleading, its message of hope, perseverance and determination is one that the real Streep would be happy to lend her name to.

 

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