Meryl Streep: ‘I didn’t want to play miserable Violet’

Meryl Streep initially turned down her acclaimed leading role in August: Osage County, because she didn’t like the idea of playing a horrible woman with mouth cancer. The actress has picked up yet another Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Violet Weston, but she admits director John Wells had to persuade her to take on the part in the movie adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
She explains, “I said no, I really did. But they dragged me in, kicking and screaming.
“I said no because who really wants to sign up to know what it feels like to have mouth cancer and children that hate you and a husband who’d rather kill himself than be in your presence, and chemotherapy, pills and misery and a horrible past?”
She adds, “Having said that, it’s a great part and as an actor, I thought, ‘Hell’. Such a cast. How could I not?”