Meryl Streep signs autographs for her delighted Ulster fans

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Viewpoint: Belfast, Meryl's choice

Monday, August 20, 2007

As Hollywood icon Meryl Streep flew into Belfast at the weekend to help raise funds for the city's new Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast Telegraph reporter Matthew McCreary was one of the lucky few to get their hands on a ticket for a special afternoon of conversation with the star. He gives his verdict on the event and what it was like to see a movie legend in the flesh

I must admit to a little natural incredulity when I was told by a reliable source some months ago that Meryl Streep might be coming to Belfast in the summer.

And even as I queued on the steps of the Old Museum Arts Centre on Saturday afternoon, surrounded by camera crews and security guards, I still didn't really believe that someone of such legendary stature might bother making the journey all the way to Northern Ireland just to help raise funds for a new arts centre.

But Ms Streep is as good as her word, and her arrival on stage in the tiny auditorium of the OMAC was greeted with loud whoops and cheers.

To say there had been an air of anticipation around the place in the hours and minutes leading up to Streep's arrival would be an understatement.

Well-known faces from Northern Ireland's arts scene stood shoulder-to-shoulder with dozens of young people working to make a name for themselves in this difficult and competitive business.

But doubtless many of these young triers who face the prospect of 'making it' in the financially straitened circumstances of Ulster's arts industry today would find inspiration from Streep's own story.

Not long out of drama school in the 1970s her talent was spotted early and she landed her first major role in The Deer Hunter. The rest is history.

Streep is every inch the star, but without the vapid affectations of celebrity.

On a day off from filming her latest movie Mamma Mia in London, she was dressed casually in a black and white dress and leggings. She possesses a natural beauty and the ability to hold an audience in the palm of her hand, something no doubt honed by years of stage work.

The questions from the audience came thick and (reasonably) fast under the stewardship of veteran BBC broadcaster Wendy Austin.

They ranged from the predictable to the genuinely outstanding, and from the banal to the borderline cheeky - one wag asked what ambitions Streep had left in her career, apart from starring in a production at the OMAC.

My own question - 'Can you do an Ulster accent?' - was not picked out, to my chagrin, although another audience member asked something suspiciously similar, to which Streep gave a brief but passable attempt at a Belfast brogue.

When asked about the emotional difficulties of playing certain roles there were some surprising answers.

Her harrowing portrayal of the eponymous concentration camp survivor in Sophie's Choice seemingly caused her no problems at all, while her role as ice-queen fashion editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada was " not that much fun - it was an unhappy part in a happy movie".

After an hour on stage, Streep retreated with beaming smiles and a few blown kisses to a standing ovation from the audience.

And as she slipped off to stage-left there was a feeling of gleeful exhaustion as we retook our seats.