Meryl Streep Makes Rare Comments About Past Love John Cazale
What To Know
- Meryl Streep reflected on her relationship with the late actor John Cazale, sharing how his dedication as an actor continues to influence her work.
- Streep and Cazale began dating after meeting during a stage production in Central Park.
- Cazale died in 1978 at the age of 42.
Meryl Streep is one of Hollywood’s greatest actresses, and she’s stepping back into Miranda Priestly’s shoes for The Devil Wears Prada 2. During her press run for the sequel, the Oscar winner reflected on some of her classic movies, including 1978’s The Deer Hunter.
The film isn’t just significant because it earned Streep her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Linda. The Deer Hunter was also the last movie that her boyfriend at the time, John Cazale, filmed before he died. In a rare moment about her personal life, Streep opened up about her former love.
“I didn’t have much to do with him in that film, but I had preceded it, we had done Measure for Measure in Central Park, and a lot of things I learned from him,” she told Vanity Fair. “And I think about it every time I work. ‘Cause the director used to call him, ‘Oh, here comes 20 questions.’ He had, always, every morning, 20 questions at least. He just dug, dug, dug, dug deep to ask the questions that had not even really occurred to me, you know, to ask.”
Universal / Everett Collection
She added, “And then he was just an amazing listener. The quality of his and intensity of how he soaked in whatever was happening in the scene. And outside in the park, a lot of things happened, and everything happened to him. You could feel, see it on his skin. He was alive in the moment. It was a great lesson.”
Cazale and Streep started dating in 1976 after meeting during the production of Measure for Measure. He was diagnosed with lung cancer a year later. Streep supported and took care of Cazale as he dealt with his terminal illness. All of his scenes in The Deer Hunter, in which he played the role of Stan, were filmed first. Cazale and Streep’s costar, Robert De Niro, paid for his insurance after the production company wanted Cazale cut from the film.
Cazale died on March 13, 1978, at the age of 42. Streep was with him in his final moments. “The most amazing thing to see was Meryl during all of this, and the way she was with him, by his side, right through the whole thing,” Al Pacino, Cazale’s friend and The Godfather Part II costar, said in the 2009 short documentary film, I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale.
