Meryl: “We did everything live. It always had to be the whole song, run all the way through, and [director] Jonathan [Demme] recorded it — what you see and hear is what we did. We had just two weeks rehearsal and then what I played and sang went in the movie. It was a lot of pressure.”
Kevin (to Meryl): “I thought the band’s performances were terrific. I knew that you loved classical music, Meryl, but I didn’t know that you loved rock ‘n’ roll in that deep, primal way that one needs to sing it.”
On how the two have incorporated family life into their successful acting careers:
Meryl (her four grown-up kids are scattered across the country): “I went through a period where I picked movies according to location. I would never do anything too far away… (Now) the [Christmas] presents are always airline tickets. I try to get everyone at home at Christmastime”
Kevin (whose grown son and daughter are nearby in New York): “We have dinner all together once a week at least. The kids haven’t banished us from their lives.”
On having their children follow them into acting:
Kevin (son Owen and daughter Greta have both performed with him): “One of the good things about having your parents in this job is that there’s no mystique to show business.”
Meryl (daughters Mamie and Grace are both actors): “They know what the deal is. They see all my friends who started exactly when I did, and they see them at 60 still having to go in and audition, and waiting by the phone hoping that they’ll get a callback for a commercial. They don’t have any illusions about what it is. I am very impressed by my girls.”
On their first work together on Sophie’s Choice in 1982:
Kevin (joking): “When our director, Alan J. Pakula, told me I had been cast he said, ‘You know who just called? Meryl Streep, and she said you’d make a great Nathan [the movie’s lead].’ I said, ‘Great—who is she?”
Meryl: “He’s right: I was a nobody. I’d been cast over all these wonderful famous actresses.”
For more: http://parade.com/?p=412257