10 Actors Who Made Sure They Weren't Seen In TV Shows
2. Meryl Streep - Angels In America
Mike Nichols' 2003 adaptation of the legendary play Angels in America boasts a veritable acting masterclass from Meryl Streep, who played four characters over the course of the six-episode miniseries.
Though three of the characters are immediately recognisable as women played by Streep, the actress truly stretches herself by playing an elderly male Rabbi, Isador Chemelwitz.
Despite the obvious gimmickry of such a transformation, there's nothing gimmicky about Streep's performance, and she was convincingly chameleonic enough that her appearance even managed to fool author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who made a cameo as a fellow Rabbi.
According to director Nichols, Sendark had no idea he'd spent the entire day working with Streep:
"Maurice Sendak almost fainted when the 'old Jewish man' beside him stood up, grew a foot taller and spoke in the voice of a lovely woman. He had spent all day with an old Jewish man, only to find at the end of the day that the old man was Meryl Streep. Such are the pleasures of working with Meryl."
In addition to even fooling her co-stars, Streep's performance went down gangbusters with her critics and contemporaries, winning her Best Actress awards from the Golden Globes, Emmys, and Screen Actors Guild.