Meryl Streep recalls feeling career was 'over' after embracing motherhood

Meryl Streep recently reflected back on the moment she thought her career was “over” after attending the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

Reminiscing about the experience while accepting the honorary Palme d’Or at the 2024 film festival, the 74-year-old Oscar winner revealed: “Thirty-five years ago when I was here for the first time, I was already a mother of three. I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over.”

Continuing on the subject on May, 14, the three-time Academy award-winner added: “And that was not an unrealistic expectation for actresses at that time. I’m just so grateful that you haven't gotten sick of my face, that you haven't gotten off of the train.”

However, the Sophie’s Choice star concluded her acceptance speech featuring a quote from her late mother that said: “My mother, who was usually right about everything, said to me, ‘Meryl, darling, you’ll see it all goes so fast. So fast.’ And it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.”

Streep didn’t hold back from sharing her first-hand Cannes experience.

She further shared: “They said, ‘You will need nine bodyguards.’ I said, ‘I don’t even need one bodyguard. Believe me, I don’t need one. I don’t have a bodyguard. … I never have a bodyguard.”

“They said, ‘You will need nine.’ I needed maybe a dozen the first time I came here because in the olden days, I don’t know, there wasn't the same security.”