Meryl Streep shares her thoughts on Inez McCormack and Margaret Thatcher, two figures she has portrayed:
After the death this April of Inez’s nemesis, Mrs Thatcher, I was sunk in thought about what it all meant. I had portrayed both of these women and tried to understand them emotionally, from the inside out. What the sources of their passionately held (and diametrically opposed) convictions were; the strength both women applied in diligent pursuit of what they regarded as the right, and righteous, path; the way their admirers and adversaries both commented on their formidable stamina and seemingly limitless energy towards correcting what they perceived as the flaws of society: all of this interested me. We can, and should, look to these trailblazers for clues as to how to lead, and lead effectively.
Inez said always “Look around the table, and see who is not there”: her leadership style was inclusion. In order to change the world for the better, she felt that all people, including and especially those deemed least valuable, the most disenfranchised, must have their voices heard and credited.
I can’t say if Mrs Thatcher would have agreed. But no one ever accused her of running from an argument, or being afraid to hear and rebut conflicting views, to mix it up in the scrum. She lived for it.
The Dish 