Anger for Thatcher got Streep ‘more interested’ in ‘Iron Lady’

Washington: Meryl Streep has revealed that she got “more interested” in portraying Margaret Thatcher in the movie ‘The Iron Lady’ when she discovered the amount of anger people have towards her.

The Oscar-winning actress, who portrays the British political leader in her latest movie ‘The Iron Lady’, was shocked at the kind of dislike people have for the 86-year-old former British prime minister, but found that it convinced her to take the part. “We give our elected leaders iconic stature almost to have things to tear down, to work out all sorts of our own psychological problems and needs and venomous feelings. So I wondered about all the times that Margaret Thatcher was spoken about being unfeeling,” Contactmusic quoted her as telling the Daily Beast. “And I thought, ‘Well, why was that? Was she really completely unfeeling?’ And as a public figure in a much smaller way myself, I understand that feeling of being stripped of your humanity. Was she a monster? “While we were making the film, people had such strong and particular and specific venom for her. It was sort of stunning. It made me all the more interested in where her humanity lay.” The 62-year-old star was astonished to learn about Thatcher’s workaholic nature while researching for the role, and the actress thinks that the anger directed towards the political leader would not be as intense if it was voiced by a man. “I mean, I did suspect that there was a weird special rage about her because she was a woman. From all sides. “The policies that she pursued were the same policies that Geoffrey Howe pursued, although he’s not loathed and detested with the same intensity. And I think that it is a discomfort with, and a confusion about, women in leadership roles. “For feminists it’s a betrayal because she doesn’t do the right thing, and so you hate her more than you’d hate a man who stood for the same things,” she added. ANI