Meryl Streep has had enough of flattened characters. In a recent interview, the actor criticized the homogenization of modern filmmaking, arguing that Hollywood's obsession with franchise templates reduces complex people into predictable tropes. "We tend to Marvel-ize," she said, calling the approach "so boring."
The comment lands pointedly as Streep promotes The Devil Wears Prada 2. Her original Miranda Priestly was precisely the kind of character she's defending now: a boss who seemed villainous on the surface but revealed unexpected depth and vulnerability. That nuance, Streep suggests, is disappearing from contemporary cinema.
Her critique taps into a broader frustration among serious actors and filmmakers. The blockbuster formula prioritizes world-building and spectacle over character development. Actors sign on for multifilm contracts where their roles must remain consistent across installments, leaving little room for the kind of transformation and moral ambiguity that defined prestige filmmaking a generation ago.
Streep's observation hits harder coming from someone who built a career on playing women who contain multitudes. She's not saying superhero films shouldn't exist. She's saying the template shouldn't consume everything else. When studios chase the Marvel model across every genre, filmmaking loses something essential: the messy, contradictory humanity that makes characters actually interesting.