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Streep captivated as Sophie, a Polish immigrant with a haunting past. Sophie’s Choice (1982) followed her life in Brooklyn, but its most gut-wrenching moments came through flashbacks to her time in a Nazi camp.
To truly embody Sophie, Meryl Streep had to learn Polish. She initially assumed it would be as easy as picking up Italian or French, as she told CheatSheet. “I thought it would be a piece of cake, like picking up Italian or French or something—but it’s not,” Streep said in an interview. “It’s a lot like Latin because there are seven cases, I think—my teacher will kill me if I don’t get this right—grammar wasn’t my strong point, I can get the accent.”
Streep continued: “Anyway, because of that it was real hard to learn, you have to parse every sentence as you speak it, every word changes its ending according to whether it’s the object of a sentence or the subject or the indirect object. It’s really wild.”
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The film’s script originally had the concentration camp sequences in English. That changed at the last minute. Director Alan J. Pakula decided to shoot them in Polish and German for authenticity. Streep didn’t hesitate. “Get me a German teacher,” she told Pakula. And just like that, she found herself in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, spending three weeks filming some of the most grueling scenes of her career.
Her dedication paid off. Sophie’s Choice became one of the most acclaimed performances of all time. Streep won the Oscar for Best Actress.
With over 90 acting credits, Streep kept raising the bar. But Sophie’s Choice remained a career-defining moment. Her commitment to mastering accents and languages set the gold standard for method acting, inspiring generations. Her struggle with Polish wasn’t just about getting the words right; it was about making Sophie’s heartbreak feel real.
She thought it would be easy. It became one of her wildest challenges. But for Meryl Streep, perfection was always worth it.
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