Oscar winner Meryl Streep recalls how she spent an evening with the late Brian Friel but claims to have “no memory” of the occasion other than “it involved dancing".
Speaking to Newstalk’s The Green Room with Orla Barry, the actor reflected on “the great loss” of the playwright and observed that: “When great playwright dies, it's not just his voice that is lost but all the people he ever met in his life and all people he ever imagined out of those lives.”
Streep starred in the film adaptation of Friel’s Dancing At Lunaghsa in 1998 and just last year it emerged that her roots trace back to Famine-era Donegal.
She discovered her great-grandmother was a Grace Strain from the county – although she jokingly quipped about her Irish roots to presenter Orla Barry: “We’re probably related!”
Streep is currently starring in Suffragette – Hollywood’s take on the historical fight for women’s votes – and says it’s her wish that the film “will offer hope to women”.
The 66-year-old plays Emmeline Pankhurst – the British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement.
Although Streep believes modern day sexism is still a reality and points to the Catholic Church as one of the leading culprits.
"There are two places women can't vote in the world - Saudi Arabia, although that is changing, and the Vatican... and that seems wrong to me," she said.
"The lack of inclusion of women in decision making bodies in every country in the world whether it's to do with refugees or the church,” she added.
Streep has been reluctant in the past to associate with the label feminist: "There’s a phrase in this film that says ‘deeds not words’. And that's sort of where I stand on that [feminism]. I let the actions of my life stand for what I am as a human being. I'm content with that."
However, she does mention one person when asked who the modern-day equivalent of her character is: Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.
The interview will be aired in full on The Green Room with Orla every Saturday from 8pm.
