Meryl Streep looks back on one of the most distressing moments of his career. Looking back on the set of “Out of Africa,” the Oscar winner recalled how a peaceful day on set quickly turned dangerous when a hippo rushed toward the crew, forcing everyone to hastily retreat.
The unexpected scare is just one of several candid revelations Streep has made recently, as she also opened up about past tensions with Goldie Hawn and a bold salary demand that led her to abandon an early version of “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Meryl Streep welcomes Robert Redford
Streep couldn’t help but gush when thinking about her time working with the late Robert Redford.
During a recent career retrospective with Vanity Fair, the Oscar winner looked back on her experience filming Out of Africa and reflected on one of her most memorable scenes.
Watching the moment Redford’s Denys Hatton washes his hair by the river while reciting lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Streep described the actor in glowing terms.
“He was the most divine man in the world,” she said, before clarifying that the scene was not meant to be provocative. “It’s not a sex scene. It’s a love scene… He was truly incredible.”
Streep admitted she didn’t want the moment to end, remembering how natural and intimate it felt while filming.
Streep talks about her run-in with Charging Hippo
Streep also recalled the real danger that manifested itself during the filming of “Out of Africa.” She explained that the river scene had to be shot several times, even though the hippos lingered nearby.
At one point, the situation took a turn for the worse when a wild hippo suddenly rushed towards the crew with its mouth wide open, forcing them to immediately stop filming and move to safety.
Despite the fear, Streep has long spoken fondly about her scene with Redford, as she previously recounted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, per Variety.
“It’s sort of a sex scene, because it’s so intimate,” she said at the time. “We’ve seen so many scenes of people fucking, but we don’t see that loving touch, that attention.”
Meryl Streep has already weighed in on the scene
At the time, Streep also spoke about the intimidating nature of filming the scene, particularly because of the wild animals nearby.
“We had lions, but they were imported from California, and they were supposed to be well tamed. They weren’t,” she said, according to Metro.
“And the second thing we were told is that the animal that kills the most people in Africa is the hippopotamus, if you put yourself between the hippopotamus and the water,” Streep added. “So we were filming in the river, and the hippos were right above. I don’t know if they show that in the movie, I don’t remember, but I was aware of it!”
Streep reveals her ‘beef’ with Goldie Hawn
Elsewhere in her interview with Vanity Fair, Streep revealed that she once “had a problem” with Hawn while filming the 1992 film “Death Becomes Her.” According to her, Hawn had a character that she found off-putting while they were filming together.
“Goldie, she was always late to bed,” Streep recalled of Hawn. “But she was so sweet. And I’m always on time, you know, and annoying. But she’s late. And she had a red convertible, I remember, and she drove herself to the set. So that was probably the problem.”
Meryl Streep turned down ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ for more money
Streep revealed she almost gave up one of her most iconic roles over money.
Speaking on the TODAY show alongside Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, the actress explained that she initially turned down The Devil Wears Prada because the offer didn’t meet her expectations.
“I knew it was going to be a success,” she said, explaining that she thought from the start the script had huge potential.
Streep decided to test her leverage, rejecting the initial offer and doubling her asking price. Reflecting on that moment, the actress admitted that it was a turning point in how she valued herself in the industry.
“I’m 56 years old. It took me a long time to realize that I could do this,” she said. “They needed me, I felt it.”
Two decades later, she’s back as Miranda Priestly in the recently released sequel.
