Meryl Streep works hard to sing badly in her new film, Florence Foster Jenkins. In it, she plays the title character, based on an actual heiress and socialite born in 1868, who devoted her life to music — despite the fact that she had a squeaky, screechy singing voice.
Streep tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that she prepared for the role by listening to recordings of Jenkins. She found herself fascinated by the ways in which the heiress’s performances almost worked.
“She came so close in moments,” Streep says. “I think that’s sort of what held the audience in rapt attention is that she almost got there — until the moment where it went wildly off the rails.”
Streep found herself drawn to the way that Jenkins attacked the arias she attempted. “She really had a big ambition,” Streep says. “She tried the very most difficult pieces there are in the coloratura canon... There was something about the joy and the pure desire to give this thing that she so loved, this music, to people, and for them to receive it. That was something that drew people to her.”
It’s worth noting that Streep studied briefly with noted opera teach Estelle Liebling when she was a teenager:
I had my lesson right after Beverly Sills, and it was before she even made her debut ... I listened at the door, and I thought, oh, she's pretty good. ... It was really fun, but I didn't really like opera. I liked cheerleading, you know, and boys and later smoking. So my opera career was cut short when I was 15. My dad got sick, and we couldn't afford the lessons, so I stopped and became a cheerleader and wrecked my voice.
Listen to the complete interview, with soundbites from the film, or read the full transcript.