Meryl Streep recalls thinking career was 'over' due to 'expectations'

Meryl Streep just revealed she had a faux realization when she was 39 years old, that she felt her career was “over.”

Now, the three-time Oscar winning actress got candid about her thoughts over aging with respect to the movie industry, that she had during the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

According to PEOPLE, during her acceptance speech for the accepting an honorary Palme d'Or award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival she stated, “Thirty-five years ago when I was here for the first time, I was already a mother of three. I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over.”

“And that was not an unrealistic expectation for actresses at that time,” Streep, who made her Cannes debut and won the festival’s best actress award in 1989, added.

She continued, “I’m just so grateful that you haven't gotten sick of my face, that you haven't gotten off of the train.”

Meryl Streep, revealing what her mother said to her, concluded, “My mother, who was usually right about everything, said to me, ‘Meryl, darling, you’ll see it all goes so fast. So fast.’ And it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.”