Meryl Streep webchat - Thursday 8th October from 1-1.45pm.

[SandyMumsnet]

We are beside ourselves with excitement and so delighted to be able to say that the highly acclaimed Oscar and BAFTA winning actress, and quite frankly awesome, Meryl Streep is joining us for a webchat on Thursday 8th October from 1-1.45pm.

Meryl will be chatting about her new film Suffragette and her diverse, award winning career.

For 45 minutes we've got her full attention. So please join us on Thursday for the webchat, or post your question to this industry veteran now!

Suffragette is in cinemas from 12th October.
Suffragette show times

Photo of Meryl courtesy of Brigitte Lacombe

@Jeanniejampots80

Hi Meryl,

Hello from Ireland (via Mumsnet) my question is, mosts actors say they hating watching themselves on screen, do you and more importantly does you daughter hate you watching her on screen? :)

I don't hate watching! In the olden days, when we used to have dailies after each day of work (people have ways to access the day's work online now), I used to love watching them. When we made Silkwood, Mike Nicholls would have catered Mexican food; we'd watch the day's work on a big screen, and it was a reward. Sometimes when you're in a movie, you don't have confidence that everything was captured, and to see the evidence of your work and all the work that went into it is a reward, and instructive for the next day's work. On my daughter, god no! My daughters have all said 'Look at Me' all their lives!

God I'm glad Meryl has clarified the humanist/feminist issue. She rocks even more!

@SoleBizzzz

Do you still have the ghost in your house in Connecticut?

Some people feel she is still there. I feel nothing but good vibes from that eminence, but I'm not sure I really believe in ghosts. I can't argue with other people's experience - it must be valid if they believe it.

@beckyfalls

Can you put my husband out of his misery? He's been told that in the film "The French Lieutenant's Woman", a stunt man took your place at the end of the pier - true or false?

There was a stuntman lashed to a post at the end of the pier on one particular very dramatic day, because it was so dangerous. He was tied there otherwise he would have been swept away. So it's both true and false. The close-up was all me; that wasn't him!

You must have filmed in such beautiful and atmospheric places all over the world - could I please ask where your favourite filming location was, and why?

Sitting here "writing" my PhD thesis on paediatric obesity and having my questioned answered by Meryl Streep is my greatest achievement this week :)

This is a goofy question, but would rather: have a hamster as big as a dog? or a dog as small as a hamster?

(I'm not very good at exciting questions and I'm too starstruck to think, ha!)

Thank you so much!! My husband's delighted and he'll dine out on that story for ages now :-)

@PirateSmile

Hello Meryl. What a pleasure to have you on here.

I want to say many congratulations and best wishes on your Writers' Lab project. As a writer myself I think it's such an important and exciting thing for you to have done.

I'm very frustrated at the lack of female writers in the film industry and I assume the situation is as frustrating for US based would be screenwriters as it is for UK writers. The situation over here is that whilst we have amazingly talented and successful writers such as Abi Morgan, it still remains very hard (almost impossible in fact) for women to find their writing translated on the screen. The equally fabulous Emma Thompson was on Mumsnet not too long ago saying just that.

My own experience is that the film industry is almost impenetrable to female over 40s. For example, I've tried to find a home for one of my screenplays but it's a 'tough sell' (that's direct quote by the way) when there's a female protagonist. The industry seem to like it as I sent it off to several film festivals and it won a couple of sets of laurels but trying to get a producer interested is impossible. I strikes me as even harder if your writing doesn't fit into the 'female' market. My screenplay won best in a history/war category at one film festival and I was so proud to have beaten the boys at their own game

I really wish the Writers' Lab writers the very best of luck and I look forward to seeing the stories they want to tell on screens in the not too distant future. As I've already said, I think this project is a truly brilliant thing for you to have done.

The Writers' Lab was I think a great idea, because it supports women in getting their stories read, picked up, produced, green-lit and distributed in the larger market place. We thought it would drive attention to the project if I lent my name to it and funded it. So, it was for women over 40 and they got thousands of submissions and whittled it down to 50, and then eight women were chosen to go to a workshop up in Lake George, NY this summer. It was sponsored by the New York Women in Film and Television organisation, and they did all the adjudication - I didn't have a hand in that. The winner was Sarah Bird, from Austen, Texas - she was very happy, and she's now madly writing another screenplay, and has made a lot contacts with people in a position to help that screenplay be funded, green-lit and distributed. So we'll do it again next year and soon the world will be flooded with stories from women of that age group and experience and imagination.

Hello Meryl!
Have you ever been asked to go on Desert Island Discs? I think you would be very interesting guest

@FutureMum

Hi Meryl, I am mum to a wonderful little girl with ads so inclusion and diversity is v important to me, do you think the film industry is more inclusive now than when you started? What do you think should be done to make it even more so? Thanks for your films!

I think it actually is more inclusive than it used to be. Differences in learning styles and how people perceive things is the realm of the creative person, and there's now a way of speaking about these things, and an appreciation and understanding of why different people's creative processes are important. I'm not sure, but in terms of the few people I know in the industry who are diagnosed, they're very successful and it's not entirely a disadvantage.

What advice can you give to a young female from a small town looking to get into the media industry as a producer or similar? :)

Thanks for being a great inspiration!

Hi Meryl!! I seem to have lost all my eloquence at the prospect of seeing you reply to my question but hey, it's 1:40 am and I'm frickin excited.

My question is, what was it like to film Mamma Mia? The film comes off as a really happy fun story and it looks like you and your co-stars would have had a blast filming it.

@TanteRose

Hello Meryl

The premiere of Suffragette went off with a bang, didn't it?!
Looking forward to seeing the film.

Was watching The Hours again the other day - and I loved the link in the film to the classic "Mrs. Dalloway".

What are you reading at the moment? Do you even have time to read for pleasure?

Yes! I've just enjoyed some of Ali Smith's work, a writer whom I wasn't familiar with, passed to me by a friend here in England. Just finished Euphoria, which is a wonderful book - loosely constructed around the events of Margaret Mead's life. I just finished All the Light We Cannot See, which I adored.

Which film are you most proud of and why?

I'm currently editing a book for kids about awesome women of the theatre, and discovering incredible (and relatively unknown) women.

Which woman of theater/stage/film do you think deserves to be more widely known?

Hi Meryl

(Wow - totally starstruck! Both my DD and I LOVE watching you in films)

One of the reasons my daughter and I think you are an amazing actress is due to the versatility in the roles you play whether it's comedy, drama or romcom. Do you find it easy to switch between styles where one project has finished and then next starts?

Thanks

Thank you so much for your reply and I sincerely hope that the world will be flooded with stories from female screenwriters.

@TheHammaconda

Hi Meryl

Thanks for coming on to MN for this webchat.

When you won your BAFTA for The Iron Lady you mentioned your roots in Lincolnshire. Where abouts are your family from? Which parts of Lincolnshire have you visited and liked?

I'm from Lincs, so if you ever want a tour guide...

I became aware of my family's roots fairly recently, through a PBS programme in the US. I discovered that my mother's family, the Wilkinsons, were English Quakers. One of her great-great-great-grandfathers was the second mayor of New Providence, Rhode Island, during the time of King Philip's war, which was the largest Indian massacre in the then colonies. They killed 90% of the people in New Providence but they spared Lawrence Wilkinson and his family because they were Quakers, and unarmed. They were all from Lincolnshire, apparently. I've never been. I'll call you up when I next tour!

As an aspiring writer and children's television creator, what advice would you give to us busy mums to get into the industry?

thanks for replying Meryl!

sooo going to be name-dropping this into conversations tomorrow

She'll call you up!! Hamma you're my new best friend.

Hi Meryl,

As a WAHM (Working Away from Home Mum!) is there any time when you have had to misa really important work thing because one of your kids was sick? (I'm stuck at home today with a sick 5 yr old!)

Love your work!

@Potofsugar

Have you ever be star struck?

Yes, when I was a young actress in the theatre in New York, one of my boyfriend's best friends was Al Pacino, at the time of The Godfather movies and there was no more famous person in NY. I remember him coming over and I was making him pasta, and my hand was shaking as I tried to open a can. My boyfriend said "what's the matter with you!?!" He made me really nervous, because he was such a big star, so I was shaky and weird. So when people are shaky and weird with me, I understand the feeling very well. After a while, it wears off with familiarity!

Thank you so much for your answer :)