The Big Picture

• Meryl Streep shines in Robert Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her, playing a despicable character with glee and lack of sympathy.
• Despite early underappreciation, the film gained cult status, resonating with audiences due to its themes.
• Streep's role in Death Becomes Her showcases her range with villainous characters and solidifying the movie's legacy as a dark comedy.

It's cliché to say "what can't Meryl Streep do?" The three-time Academy Award winner (and most oscar-nominated actor) has sustained a career for nearly 50 years, ranging from dramas to comedies to musicals, and at least one animated film. Nowadays, she has taken a break from movies (or at least ones that get her Oscar nominations) and can be seen getting laughs and cozying up to Martin Short in the latest season of Only Murders in the Building. Streep appearing in a comedy is certainly not shocking, considering she received an Oscar nomination for The Devil Wears Prada and appeared in comedies like Mamma Mia!, It's Complicated, Ricki and the Flash, Mary Poppins Returns, and Don't Look Up. But for a time it seemed unlikely.

For years, Streep was heralded for her work in dramas, but her roles in comedies were not nearly as celebrated. Her biggest comedic swing was the macabre high concept supernatural comedy Death Becomes Her. The 1992 film from Robert Zemeckis paired Streep with Goldie Hawn as two divas fighting literally to the death over vanity, youth, and a claim to Bruce Willis. Initially underappreciated, Death Becomes Her has been embraced and showcases an impeccable performance from Streep playing a truly unlikeable character that audiences can watch with glee.

Meryl Streep Gets To Show a Different Side in 'Death Becomes Her'

Streep's character in Death Becomes Her, Madeline Ashton, is downright despicable. A vain actress obsessed with her youth and beauty, Madeline's first action in the movie is stealing her long-time friend and rival Helen's (Hawn) fiancé, Ernest (Willis). Years later, Madeline's fame has declined, her beauty requires more effort, Ernest is no longer the renowned plastic surgeon Madeline wanted to possess, and she despises all of that. Helen, however, has been on the upswing, finding success as an author and, more enviable to Madeline, looks 20 years younger! While Helen attempts to get Willis back, Madeline's chief concern is her secret to looking so good.

As Madeline Ashton, Streep gets to be a heinous beauty motivated entirely by her ego and status. Her performance revels in the snide comments and the desperation to defeat aging. Streep isn't held back by concerns of making Madeline sympathetic, instead creating a performance that is both villainous and flat-out entertaining. As part of the high comedy of Death Becomes Her, Madeline and Helen both take a potion that grants them eternal life with one condition: they must keep their bodies intact. This proves a challenge for the two ladies, as their conflict immediately results in limbs being snapped, heads twisting around, and a shotgun blowing a literal hole through Goldie Hawn's torso. She has an electric antagonism with Goldie Hawn, that only grows when the two attempt and fail to kill one another.

The insults they exchange are already fun, but the movie reaches a new peak of sardonic glee when Madeline and Helen team up and attempt to hold Ernest hostage (so he can use his plastic surgeon skills to repair them whenever they need). Without sacrificing any of the callousness Streep infuses in Madeline from the start, she and Helen go to extreme lengths to keep Ernest subservient to them, all for the purpose of maintaining their beauty. After years of Streep playing austere women, or characters one can't help being sympathetic for, there is so much joy in letting Streep be unleashed. Meryl doesn't hold back in Death Becomes Her, and people loved it... eventually.

Robert Zemeckis' 'Death Becomes Her' Was Under-Appreciated Upon Release

Despite an winning an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Streep, Death Becomes Her didn't land smoothly. The film only made a little over $50 million at the box office, and critics were not so enthusiastic. Roger Ebert felt the special effects outshined the characters, with Gene Siskel echoing that by saying there's not much to the movie besides wondering how they pulled things off — the critics gave it two thumbs down. For years, the special effects were all people talked about, including Streep.

A few years after the movie came out, she spoke to EW about working with the effects, "I think it's tedious. Whatever concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery — they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to act to a lampstand." But she also commented on how it spoke to the obsession Hollywood has with aging and, as a result, that it is a commodity for women. Over the years, it is exactly these themes that spoke to people.

Death Becomes Her became a hit on home video, but what truly helped it achieve cult status was how it resonated in the queer community. In a Vanity Fair article celebrating the film's 25th anniversary, Kristy Puchko examines how the countercultural themes and unabashed femininity appealed to queer audiences. Puchko notes "the film is screened during Pride month, where bar rooms and theaters full of fans mouth along with every line," and that it is an eternal source of inspiration for drag performers. In the article, RuPaul's Drag Race executive producer Tom Campbell and former winner Jerick Hoffer cite that the leading ladies of Death Becomes Her fight back at a system that says they're no longer accepted, and they do so with comic brutality, all while looking good. It's that resistance to accepting what society tells people they should be that gives the film such power for a group that has long been marginalized.

'Death Becomes Her' Stands Out Among Meryl Streep's Impressive Filmography

Over her long career, Meryl Streep has had the chance to show some versatility. In her later years, she expanded from Oscar dramas to roles that were villainous and leading rom-coms (though not enough if you ask us!). But Death Becomes Her is the only movie of its kind Meryl Streep ever made, and she excels at it. As Madeline, Streep is catty and repulsive, but it's entertaining regardless. Streep doesn't hold back, giving Madeline a vicious edge and, because of that, she becomes someone audiences can unabashedly root for. She is a major reason the movie maintains its legacy as a legendary dark comedy, and in no small part why it received a musical adaptation set to premiere in Chicago later this year before a planned Broadway run. Like the lead characters, Death Becomes Her will continue to live on.

Death Becomes Her is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.

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