Saturday, 10 January 2009

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Meryl Streep: I thought I was going crazy

Actress was working too hard

Meryl Streep starred in The Devil Wears Prada

Meryl Streep thought she was losing her mind when she worked solidly for 18 months.

The actress has made 6 movies, including Mamma Mia! and new film Doubt, in the last 2 years.

And she reckons the long hours had an adverse affect on her health.

‘I’ve never done that in my whole life,’ she says. 'And I realised why I’d never done that – because it makes you crazy.

'I’ve arranged my life in a way like pregnancies – you have a period where you’re getting ready for something, and then the whole world shifts and you get used to that, and then something else happens.’

Meryl, 59, likes to take time out before starting a new project.

‘I really need the gestation period,’ she tells the Telegraph magazine. 'Living. Cooking. Reading. I really need reading. I really need poetry.

'I need to sit in a chair and listen to one entire piece of music from beginning to end – or I go crazy. And I didn’t have the time to do that. And I was going crazy.'

Alison Adey