10 Actors Who Improved At Something They Were Terrible At

In any conversation about our greatest living actress, it's impossible to exclude the great Meryl Streep, who is the most Oscar-nominated actor in history, having 21 nods to her name since 1979 as resulted in three wins.

Despite her popularity and undeniable talent, in recent years it's been suggested that the Academy "over-nominates" Streep - that they'll throw her a nomination for basically any prestige-type performance even if it's hardly among the year's five best.

Between 2009 and 2018, Streep received a stonking seven Oscar nominations, with many feeling that some of these nods were rather on the soft side - especially her turns in Into the Woods and Florence Foster Jenkins.

Such birthed the running joke that the Academy will nominate Streep for reading the phone book, yet in recent years she's veered away from overtly awards-baiting roles and basically just seems to be having fun with acting again.

Her last nomination was in 2018, and if she isn't nominated next year, this will mark her longest gap without a nod since 1996.

Since her 2018 nomination for The Post, Streep has appeared in a bevy of frothier roles, from cameos in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! and Mary Poppins Returns, to major roles in The Prom and Don't Look Up.

Even her more dramatic recent work, such as a supporting appearance in Little Women, had not a whiff of an actress trying to rack up another Oscar nod - it was a slight, small, vanity-free performance.

Though we'll surely see Streep back in Oscar contention soon enough, taking a break from the awards circus was perhaps the healthiest thing she could've done, to calm the growing narrative that she's an "overrated" performer.