Meryl Streep has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest films.
Some of her biggest hits include Sophie’s Choice, Silkwood, and The Devil Wears Prada.
But Meryl Streep’s favorite scene from her movies surprisingly involved hippos.
The actress reflected back on her role in the romance film, Out of Africa.
She co-stars in the film with Robert Redford, who plays a big game hunter.
Streep plays a Dutch baroness who falls in love with him while running a coffee plantation in colonial South Africa.
She tells us that her favorite scene was one in which Redford washes her hair while reciting Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
She compares that scene to a sex scene, but much classier than you see in many movies these days.
“It’s a sex scene in a way, because it’s so intimate,” the 74-year-old actress said during a Wednesday conversation at Cannes’ Théâtre Debussy, per Variety. “We’ve seen so many scenes of people f——, but we don’t see that loving touch, that care.”
While filming, Streep and others had to contend with the possibility of dangerous animal encounters.
A wild scene
“We had lions, but they were imported from California and they were supposedly fine — tame. They were not,” the actress said.
But the animal they were most worried about is not what you might expect.
“And the second thing we were told is the animal that kills the most people in Africa is the hippopotamus, if you get between the hippopotamus and the water,” she added.
“So we were shooting in the river and the hippopotamus were right above it. I don’t know if they show that in the movie, I can’t remember, but I was aware of it!”
She noted that Redford wasn’t doing well in the scene at first, concerned that the giant beast could attack them at any moment.
But Streep’s longtime hair stylist and makeup artist, Roy Helland, showed him how it’s done.
“Redford took the lesson, and he just really got into it, and he was great,” Streep recalled. “By take five I was so in love!”
“I didn’t want it to end that day, even in spite of the hippos,” she added.
She praised Redford for his role in the movie with her, describing him as “very charming.”
“We really got to know each other after he arrived in Africa,” she said. “I developed this huge crush on him, which made it easier to do the love story. He’s really wonderful to work with.”
The two later worked together again in the 2007 war thriller, Lions for Lambs, which also starred Tom Cruise.
Streep said that she was surprised that she managed to be involved in movies that became box office hits.
Out of Africa ended up winning Oscars, including best picture and best director for Pollack.
Informed American will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
