Meryl Streep is easily one of the most iconic actresses of our time, starring in films like The Devil Wears Prada , Mamma Mia! , Kramer vs. Kramer , and Sophie’s Choice . Even at her level of fame, she has managed to maintain a fairly low profile.
Here are a few interesting little-known facts about the Bridges Of Madison County star that fans didn’t know!
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1. Her real name is not Meryl.
While we have come to know and love her as Meryl Streep, that is not actually her real name.
She was born Mary Louise Streep, and later adopted the nickname Meryl.
“At birth, I had to be named Mary because my mother’s name was Mary and her mother’s name was Mary and [so on],” she revealed on *The Graham Norton Show*.
“So I was born Mary and Louise was my mother’s best friend. . . Louise Buckman. So I was named after her. But I was always called Meryl. My father made that name up and he liked that name .”
2. She was a cheerleader in high school.
Michael Schulman, who wrote Meryl’s biography, revealed to NPR that she was a very active member of her high school community.
“She joined the cheerleading squad, she was the lead in every musical, she would do the French club and student council,” he said .
3. She was elected for homecoming queen in her senior year of high school.
“And eventually her senior year she was elected homecoming queen, which was kind of the pinnacle. It was kind of like winning best actress of her high school,” Michael Schulman also revealed to NPR .
4. Her husband is a sculptor.
Because Meryl is so iconic, we hardly ever hear about her spouse, Don Gummer, who is a professional sculptor.
The pair tied the knot in 1978 after dating for six months and have been together ever since.
6. Meryl and her husband share four children together, all of whom are also in show business.
Her eldest, Henry Wolfe, is a musician, her youngest, Louisa, is a model, and her two middle children, Mamie and Grace, are both actresses .
7. She is a classically trained singer.
Before appearing in any musicals, Meryl trained in opera singing. In an interview with NPR she revealed:
“I was 13. I didn’t like opera. Ew. I liked cheerleading and boys — that was what I was interested in, and Barbra Streisand, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. But I loved singing. I loved it. And I did have a very good coloratura.”
8. She is not a movie buff.
“I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of movies,” she said in an interview with IndieLondon .
“I have a very busy life, and not many people who have a career that’s time-consuming, and have four kids, do go out a lot to the movies.”
“I don’t know why I don’t watch a lot of movies, I can barely keep up with the current crop to responsibly vote on behalf of the Academy Awards,” she continued.
“You have to see everything and I honestly don’t see everything. I can barely keep up with the things my friends are in – which are the ones I vote for! I haven’t seen the older ones. It’s like all the books you want to read. I try to keep current with the books I want to read this year, but I look at all the things I haven’t covered yet in the classics and blah, blah, blah. So there isn’t enough time in life, that’s all.”
9. She used to wear a wig to go shopping to avoid being spotted by paparazzi and fans.
“I had a short brown wig,” she told Vanity Fair .
“The only time I was in California, I was in the Beverly Hills Hotel, and someone from behind said, ‘Hey, Meryl. Can I have your autograph?’ . . . So, yes, yes, I have a wig, but it doesn’t work.”
10. She once said that she wished she could be a famous actress without the fame.
In an interview with Vanity Fair , she confessed that if it were possible to be the extremely iconic actress that she has become “in secret,” that would be ideal.
11. She told *W Magazine* that when she was “young and pretty” she “was really beaten up.”
The comment came after she revealed that she was never personally victimized by Harvey Weinstein.
She did, however, admit in very little detail that she has dealt with her fair share of that type of behavior when she was younger.
12. She did not hesitate to accept a role in *Suffragette*.
“I immediately said yes to the role. Not only was it an honor to play a key leader of the British women’s voting rights movement, but this is the first movie to be made about that era and about the beginnings of the women’s civil rights movement in general,” she told Working Mother .
“One hundred years later, women still don’t have equality and we’re still fighting for equal rights today.”
13. She has an advanced degree from an Ivy League university.
Before becoming the Meryl Streep, she was a student at Vassar College.
From there, she went on to attend Yale and earn her masters degree in fine arts in 1975.
14. She applied to trademark her name.
According to documents obtained by TMZ , Meryl has started the motions of having her name trademarked.
This is a very common thing for celebrities to do because it prevents anyone else from making money off of their brand.