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　　听力难易程度：★★★(难)
　　速度 一般
　　词汇 B
　　发音 清晰

　　MERYL STREEP

　　LISTENING POINT

　　二十世纪20年代，语言学鬼才Noam Chomsky提出了新语法理论,将由“深层结构”到“表层结构”的过程作为语言表达分析的重点。Meryl Streep的表演可能不是很好理解，但是我们不能只拘泥于她的台词所传达的“表层含义”，而必须注意她在此之前在准备角色阶段即“深层结构”的阶段真正要表达的意思。

　　“我总是被指责为一个技巧派演员。”也就是说自己被认为是个没有风趣的女演员。然而，从她的话中，我们不难体会到那种从灵魂深处理解角色的深深热忱和对待演艺事业的真诚姿态。

　　INTERVIEWER：詹姆斯·利普顿

　　Inside the Actors' Studio的主持人。纽约戏剧集团、Actors?Studio的终身会员兼副校长。同时担任New School大学School of Dramatic Arts的校长。

　　何谓Inside the Actors' Studio?

　　Bravo Cable Network公司的脱口秀节目，于1994年4月开始播出。每次节目邀请各个领域的演艺界人士作为嘉宾，比如：演员、导演、音乐家等等，在那些为进入娱乐界而奋斗的New School大学的学生面前，畅谈自己的经历以及所创作品的内幕花絮。

　　表演风格多样化，塑造角色无懈可击
　　著名演员Meryl Streep
　　披露奥斯卡获奖作品《克莱默夫妇》
　　及《苏菲的抉择》等拍摄逸闻
　　讲述角色塑造之精髓

　　PROFILE：梅丽尔·斯特里普

　　1949年4月22日生于新泽西州，原名玛丽·路易斯·斯特里普。少女时期自卑于容貌极其怕生，后以优异成绩考入了名校瓦萨学院的戏剧系。后来获得奖学金进入耶鲁戏剧学校，1975年毕业，同时加入纽约地方剧团。1977年以《朱丽娅》进入电影界。曾因电影《猎鹿人》(1978年)获得纽约影评家协会最佳女配角奖。因《克莱默夫妇》获奥斯卡金像奖和纽约影评家协会最佳女配角奖，因《苏菲的抉择》(1982年)独占奥斯卡金像奖、纽约影评家协会奖和金球奖最佳女主角奖，确立了当代第一实力派女演员的地位。之后一直活跃在从动作片到喜剧片的各类风格的影片中，1999年因《弦动我心》第12次获奥斯卡金像奖提名，和凯瑟琳·赫本并列成为获提名次数最多的影星。

　　The Actress who Presents Souls

　　Samantha: Hello, and welcome to English Journal. I'm Samantha Vega.

　　Bill: And I'm Bill Sullivan. Here are some of things we have in this month's EJ.

　　Samantha: We'lll hear an interview with a University of California professor who has written a book on the Sony Corporation.

　　Bill: Then we'lll check in with<注1> BBC Health Matters for the latest medical news and research.

　　Samantha: In our Dateline USA feature, we have a report on e-commerce<注2> and how it's reshaping<注3> the way America shops.

　　Bill: After that, we'lll hear an interview with author Betsy Howie, who will tell us about her novel Snow.

　　Samantha: And Brian Peck and Ann Slater will share their perspectives<注4> on some of this month's topics in Reviews & Views.

　　Bill: But first, we'lll hear a talk with the grande dame<注5> of American cinema, Meryl Streep.

　　Samantha: She has received 10 Academy Award nominations<注6> and two Oscars, along with dozens of other awards, during her illustrious<注7> career.

　　Bill: She talks about how she became interested in acting, and why she continues to enjoy it so much.

　　Lipton: Where'd you grow up, actually?

　　Streep: Jersey<注8>, across the river<注9>.

　　Lipton: Uh, now, your family sounds like a very close family and a very bright<注10> family and a very interesting family, 'cause<注11> I've heard you had—in addition to your birthdays, you were given special days, weren't you?

　　Streep: Yeah.

　　Lipton: What happened on the special days?

　　Streep: Well, my mother had an idea. My mother loved the theater<注12>. She was just like her mother. She'd just one day wake us up and say, "This is your day. You can do whatever you want." And usually she had a plan, so that—if you want, you know, we can hang around<注13> the A&P<注14>, or we can go to Man of La Mancha<注15> or something. And, uh, so she took mesintosthe theater a lot. But I had never seen—she never took me to a serious play. I only saw musicals.

　　Lipton: Did you like them?

　　Streep: I loved them. I loved them.

　　Lipton:swheresdid you go to college?

　　Streep: Well I, I went to<注16> Vassar<注17>.

　　Lipton: Did you get involved in theater at Vassar at all?

　　Streep: Yes, I did.

　　Lipton: Did you do Miss Julie<注18> at Vassar?

　　Streep: Yeah. And that was the first play I did ... that I ever did. And it was a very serious play and I had no idea what I was doing. Really none. But oh, my God, it just was a place to tap into<注19> all sorts of feelings that I never had, I guess, admitted to myself or felt, or felt like parading<注20> in front of asgroupsof people. I mean, even today I think, what do I have to tell people? I don't really understand the zone<注21> or the state<注22> that I gosintoswhen I do these things, and then it goes away so quickly. Even things that are preserved<注23> on film are ephemeral<注24>, in a certain way, so . . .

　　Then You're Connected

　　Lipton: You said a few moments ago that you, sometimes you don't know how you getsintosthat zone. God knows<注25> we've all seen you in that zone a lotta<注26> times. And I'd like to dig<注27> just for a moment.

　　Streep: I'm not really articulate about<注28> this subject. Because it's like church<注29> for me. And some part of me—I mean, it's like approaching the altar<注30>. I feel like if—the more you talk about whatever it is, something'lll go away. I mean, there's a lot of superstition<注31> in it.

　　Lipton: Mm-hm.

　　Streep: Um, but I do know that I feel freer, less in control, more susceptible<注32> . . . I don't know. I'm always accused of being a technical actress<注33>, and I'm, I think, probably the least technical, in what people think of as technical, actress in the world, because I have really no way to talk about what we're talking about.

　　I mean, honestly, I come to each job with an open heart<注34> and trying to do my best and with some connection to a character that I don't completely understand, although I know that she lives in me. And I don't question it. I have it. It's a thing that's undeniable<注35>. And I know I can't make a wrong move if I just hold on to<注36> knowing what I know is true and what . . . knowing what I know is real for me. And that's what's real for my character. I don't know how people teach acting. I really don't.

　　Lipton: It starts in you somewhere. In you.

　　Streep: Yes. It starts in a word or a phrase in the script that somebody sends you. It has to do with<注37> the day that you got it.

　　Lipton: Mm-hm.

　　Streep: Who you're mad at that day. Who you're in love with. It has to do with context<注38> and music and all sorts of things. It's like falling in love, so you meet a character that way and then you're connected<注39>.

　　Kramer vs. Kramer

　　Lipton: In 1979, four years from grad school<注40>, Meryl appeared to acclaim in Manhattan<注41>, The Seduction of Joe Tynan<注42>, and Kramer vs. Kramer<注43>, for which she was nominated and won an Academy Award. Now when Kramer vs. Kramer was being cast<注44> neither The Deer Hunter<注45> nor The Seduction of Joe Tynan had been released. Was Columbia<注46> eager to cast you in that film as Joanna Kramer?

　　Streep: I know I went up for one part and they said, "Well, would you also read this other one just in case??But I, I do know that, uh, Dustin<注47> made a big pitch for<注48> me because I had. . . you know, I was in a kind of a raw<注49> state, uh, at the time. My friend, John Cazale<注50>, had just died, and he—Dustin knew about that, and I think he felt that I would be in a good place to play an emotionally disturbed person. I do think that that playedsintosit. Uh, also my talent, I'm sure he was . . .

　　Lipton: I got a feeling, yes.

　　Streep: Yeah. But I, I, it was a . . . a great opportunity, too, because Robert Benton<注51>, who wrote Kramer vs. Kramer, they had adapted<注52> this novel and they didn't know how to really resolve Joanna's dilemma—how to bring her back in the courtroom. And they let me, you know, write my words, in the end.

　　Lipton: In the court scene. Benton has said, "The scene was brilliant. I cut only two lines of what Meryl wrote. What you see on the screen is hers.

　　Precarious Circumstances

　　Lipton: Okay, we come now with great pleasure and admiration<注53> and excitement to Sophie's Choice<注54>. Um, now, you had already done some research on this subject when you were in The Holocaust<注55> on NBC, in the miniseries<注56>. But is it true that you—did you really learn Polish<注57> for this role?

　　Streep: I did sign up for<注58> the crash<注59> Berlitz<注60> course and, uh, in, you know, four months or something a lady came every day to my house and gave me two hours of lessons. Um, (a phrase in Polish). That means "I remember nothing."?But . . .

　　Lipton: How do you say "That's a lie?in Polish? Obviously<注61> a lie. You just remembered something.

　　Streep: I didn't wanna do some generic<注62> Eastern European thing. And I just wanted to feel—I thought it would give me an idea of how her, even jaw<注63> would move when she spoke, to speak those diphthongs<注64> and to understand Polish from the inside out<注65>, to the extent that<注66> I could. I mean, I knew I couldn't, you know, really learn it, but I went as far as I could and I just immersed myself in it<注67>, so that by the first reading I did have it so much that I would hesitate<注68>, you know, in the way that my teacher did when she was trying to find a word. And I—probably I learned more from her speaking English than I did from her teaching me Polish.

　　Lipton: When you have to prepare<注69> a role as thoroughly<注70> as you did Sophie, do you leave room<注71> for spontaneity<注72>, for accidents, for those wonderful moments?

　　Streep: Oh, God, I hope so. Yeah.

　　Lipton: Huh? No I . . .

　　Streep: Yeah, I do. I hope so, because that's the only thing that's worth looking at, is what nobody expected<注73> to happen in a scene. It's all the things that—if you've been in a play when somebody drops something or forgets a line suddenly all the atten—it all becomes alive and electric<注74> and it . . . it all feels real. So yeah, the unexplained, the tangent<注75> energy, the spontaneous is what you dream of and wish for and hope appears<注76>, you know.

　　Lipton: There's plenty of room for it.

　　Streep: So you get all ready before the first reading and then, you know, forget it. But yeah, I mean, these characters that are in precarious<注77>, life-and-death<注78> circumstances are dangerous characters to visit with your body and soul. It's dangerous to go there. When we spend our whole lives as real human beings trying to get beyond the fears and the terrors and<注79> . . . that are there, everywhere, for us.

　　And, uh, to be an actor is to want to visit those places, those dark places and the scary parts. And I use it as my therapy<注80> and as a place to exercise things that in my real life I would never want, ever, to have to deal with, you know.

　　Presenting a Soul

　　Lipton: You've said that when you . . . that in trying to find a character you look for what comes out of<注81> the eyes.

　　Streep: I think I meant that in connection to working—I don't feel like I exist until I'm with someone...

　　Lipton: A partner?

　　Streep: . . . else, yeah.

　　Lipton: How important is listening?

　　Streep: It's everything, and it'sswheresyou learn everything.

　　Lipton: Mm-hm.

　　Streep: I always think of acting—when I was applying to<注82> law school<注83> and thinking, well, this is a stupid—acting is a stupid way to make a living<注84> and it doesn't do anything in the world<注85>. But I think it does. I think it's—there's a great worth<注86> in it. And the worth is in listening to people who maybe don't even exist, or who are voices in your past, and through you come through<注87> the work and you give them to other people. I think that giving voice to characters that have no other voice is—that's the great worth of what we do, because so much of acting is vanity<注88>. So much of this is—I mean, this feels so great to come out here and sit here and have everybody clap<注89>. But the real thing that makes me feel so good is when I know I've said something for a soul—you know, I've presented a soul.

　　Lipton: Yes, I think I'm going to give Mike Nichols<注90> the evening's last word on tonight's guest. He has said, "Weeks before we begin shooting, the company<注91> starts to get together, and whoever is playing her lover is in love with her. And whoever is playing the villain<注92> is a little scared of her. And whoever is playing her best friend is her best friend. She shifts her soul slightly and changes the chemistry<注93> of all the relationships.?Thank you, Meryl, for changing our chemistry tonight and forever.

　　Streep: Thank you.