Is it true that Meryl Streep posted that she wasn't given a role in King Kong because she was "too ugly"?

For several years, a picture has been circulating on social networks with a motivational post supposedly written by Meryl Streep herself. It says the attached photo is of her riding the subway after an unsuccessful audition for the movie King Kong. We checked to see if she made such a post.

Publications with a screenshot of Meryl Streep's post have been distributed across the Internet since 2015. According to Internet users, the Oscar-winning actress posted a photo of herself and captioned it as follows: “This is me returning home after casting for the movie King Kong, where I was told that I was too ugly for the role. For me, that incident was a turning point. Such a harsh opinion could either destroy my dreams of becoming an actress or make me pull myself together and believe in myself. I took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry that you think I’m too ugly for your movie, but this is just a drop in the ocean of thousands of opinions, and I’m leaving in search of kinder waves.” Today I have 18 Academy Awards."

Posts with this story collect thousands of likes on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here), on "Peekaboo" And Imgur. Various variations are also found on Twitter: in addition to the standard version (examples here And here), someone writes, that in the photo Streep is just going to the casting.

Meryl Streep's film career started in the mid-1970s. So, in 1977, with her participation, a television sports drama was released. "The Deadliest Season" and a movie "Julia". If Streep played in the remake "King Kong", released in 1976, then this picture would have become her debut. However, the main role in the film about how the monster was destroyed by beauty was played by Jessica Lange. And although Streep actually auditioned for the role in King Kong, she did not write or publish the above note.

We could not find any official verified accounts of Meryl Streep on social networks. How reports edition of BuzzFeed, the post appeared on the page of Meryl L. Streep (although Name actress at birth - Mary Louise Streep, Mary Louise Streep) on Facebook* back on November 10, 2015. The post went viral, collecting more than a million likes and hundreds of thousands of reposts, but soon the entire account along with the post was deleted for violating the rules of the social network. The thing is that on Facebook forbidden impersonate other people by using other people's photographs and presenting information on behalf of another person. Even the fact that the account description indicated that it was a fan account did not save the page from being blocked. 

But the post is still not completely fictitious, but is partly based on a real story. In January 2015, Streep appeared on The Graham Norton Show, and the host asked her about her first unsuccessful auditions, in particular about the story with film producer Dino De Laurentiis. Actress told, that in the 1970s she was casting for the film “King Kong” (she jokingly clarified that she was considered for the role of a girl), because De Laurentiis’ son Federico had previously seen her play in the play. The audition took place in New York, at the headquarters of Gulf and Western Industries (Now This is Trump Tower.) According to Streep, everything happened on the 33rd floor in an office from which the whole of Manhattan was visible. When she went there, both De Laurentiis were already inside, and the son was eager to introduce the new actress to his father. Then Laurentiis Sr. looked at Meryl and said to his son in Italian: “Why did you bring this ugly woman to me?” It turned out that Streep understood Italian, and in the same language she replied: “Sorry, I’m not beautiful enough to play in King Kong.”

Note that this casting incident is mentioned in the biographical book Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actor, written by Karina Longworth and released in January 2014. However, the actress's answer there is only slightly different from what she said on the show. He sounded like this: “I’m very sorry that I’m not as beautiful as I should be, but here I am. It is what it is".

So neither the book nor the video mentions her words about a drop in the ocean of opinions; this was invented by the author of the fan page. In addition, Streep did not and still does not have 18 Academy Awards, that is, Oscars. Currently the actress 21 nominations, of which only three were victories. Apparently, the author wanted to write “18 Academy Award nominations.” Moreover, this number was relevant at the time of the airing of “The Graham Norton Show” with Streep on January 9, 2015, but already on January 15 there were announced 87th Academy Awards nominees and Streep received his 19th nomination.

A photo from the post done by photographer Ted Tye on the New York subway in August 1981. That is, there is no way it could show the actress driving home after auditioning for the film, since it came out five years earlier. Let us add that Federico De Laurentiis died back in July of the same year as a result of a collision between two planes. 

Although the post is based on a true story, the photo is taken out of context, the quote is not from Meryl Streep, and the text incorrectly states the number of her awards.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: collage “Verified” / photo by Ted Thai / The LIFE Picture Collection

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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