It’s been a while since we first saw photographs of Meryl Streep coiffed and pearl-clad, ready to play the part of Margaret Thatcher. The long-awaited film is not out til 6 January, but a trailer (above) gives an idea of the kind of stirring stuff we can expect.
Streep, who is politically on the left, spoke to the Daily Mail about how she came to admire Thatcher while playing the part:
I still don’t agree with a lot of her policies. But I feel she believed in them and that they came from an honest conviction, and that she wasn’t a cosmetic politician just changing make-up to suit the times. She stuck to what she believed in, and that’s a hard thing to do. She’s still an incredibly divisive figure, but you miss her clarity today. It was all very clear and up front, and I loved that eagerness to mix it up and to make it about ideas.
The Mail‘s reporter reassures right-wingers who were afraid the film would be a hatchet-job that it is no such thing. But it’s a fine line to walk — many will not be able to stomach a fully Hollywood-ised version of a polarising figure. How far it goes in the other direction will remain to be seen.