Meryl Streep hits back at Cameron over The Iron Lady comments
Meryl Streep The two-time Oscar winner believes Cameron’s comments – made on BBC Radio 4 – were inappropriate and in poor taste.
The PM raised questions over why the movie’s plot focuses on Thatcher’s recent fight against poor health, including her battle with dementia, in preference to her time as Britain’s first woman prime minister.
Cameron said: “It’s a fantastic piece of acting by Meryl Streep. You can’t help wondering, why do we have to have this film right now?
“It is a film much more about ageing and elements of dementia rather than about an amazing prime minister... (It’s) a film I wish they could have made another day.”
However, 62-year-old Streep – who has received a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Thatcher in the biography-drama – believes that Cameron’s comments were decidedly tactless.
Streep chatted with British newspaper The Sunday Mirror about the current PM’s remarks, saying: “What about him (Cameron) saying on the radio that people should wait until she is dead (to make the film)? How must that make her feel?
“If I’d made a film about Margaret Thatcher and she had something wrong with her lungs, no one would have raised a hue and cry.
“But it’s because it is mental frailty she is afflicted with that is what terrifies us most.”
