10 Movie Auditions You Would Not Believe
2. Meryl Streep Isn't Pretty Enough For A Giant Ape
If this were to happen today you better believe the Casting Director in question would be up for the chop. Not because Meryl Streep is now arguably the greatest female actor on the planet, moreover the decision to not cast an actor because they aren't "pretty enough", is about as superficial and anti #MeToo as it gets.
The legendary Streep, 27 at the time, lived this nightmare and then some when she was labelled in Italian as 'ugly' by Dino De Laurentiis, who was casting a remake of King Kong. Unfortunately for De Laurentiis, he wasn't aware of Streep's fluidity in the language and she called him out for the comment before leaving with 'you're just one opinion in a sea of thousands, and I'm off to find a kinder tide.'
De Laurentiis' King Kong was a total flop and the grace that Streep handled the situation with adds further reinforcement to both her character as a woman and her legacy as an actor.