When Clint Eastwood cast Meryl Streep in the 1995 film adaptation of the Bridges of Madison County, he said he only “made one phone call.” And he had his obvious reasons: For nearly 40 years, 19-time Academy Award nominee Streep has had a golden presence in the entertainment field. She uses it in the political sphere, too—exercising what she calls her “Howard Dean scream” for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the D.N.C. two weeks ago. And now that Eastwood has declared himself a probable Donald Trump supporter, he’s most likely going to hear a thing or two from Streep herself.
In a Variety interview promoting Streep’s upcoming film Florence Foster Jenkins, Streep learned of Eastwood’s Trump comments in Esquire on why he would choose Trump over Clinton: “I’d have to go for Trump … you know, ’cause she’s declared that she’s gonna follow in Obama’s footsteps. There’s been just too much funny business on both sides of the aisle. She’s made a lot of dough out of being a politician. I gave up dough to be a politician,” Eastwood said.
And Streep, who has long been a fervent Clinton supporter, said she’s going to have to have a stern word with her costar. “I’ll have to speak to him,” she told the magazine. “I’ll have to correct that! I’m shocked. I really am. Because he’s more—I would have thought he would be more sensitive than that.”
Streep also told Variety that her support of Clinton and her D.N.C. speech went far beyond her own political loyalties. She said the whole moment “overtook” her, as she was thinking about her grandmother who couldn’t vote—and all the women before her who weren’t able to have a voice during election seasons.
No matter what she ends up saying to Eastwood, Streep likely has an impassioned anecdote or two to share during the conversation. Stay tuned for Bridges of Madison County: Love Across Party Lines. It has a nice ring to it.
