Meryl Streep Declares 'I Don't How to Act' After 3 Oscar Wins: 'I Don't Have a Method' (Exclusive)

Nigel SmithThu, April 30, 2026 at 2:44 PM UTC

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Meryl Streep Declares 'I Don't How to Act' After 3 Oscar Wins: 'I Don't Have a Method' (Exclusive) -

Meryl Streep is the most Oscar-nominated actress of all time, yet she says she still doesn't know how to act

"I don't know how people do it," she tells PEOPLE

She returns as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2, now in theaters

Meryl Streep is acting royalty. She holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor — 21 in total — with three wins. And yet, despite those history-making accolades, Streep insists, "I don't know how to act."

"I don't know how to do it. I don't know how people do it," she adds, speaking with PEOPLE for this week's issue alongside her Devil Wears Prada 2 costars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt.

Meryl StreepCredit: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images

"When I see people do it, I think, 'How did she do that?' I just saw Death of a Salesman last night [on Broadway]. I mean, I can't believe Laurie Metcalf just blew my mind... all of them! I thought, 'Well, I better just retire, because I don't know how she did that. What an artist.'"

"So yeah, I don't know how to do it," Streep, 76, continues. "I go into everything, not knowing how people do it. And you sort of feel and listen and pick it up as you go along. I don't have a method. But you have a feeling you know what you need to do."

Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada 2Credit: Macall Polay/20th Century Studios

Streep's craft — or lack thereof — came up as she recalled staying in character as the fearsome Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly for 2006's The Devil Wears Prada, something she didn't repeat for the sequel.

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"I was just miserable," she recalls of that experience. "At first I hung around on-set, and then [in a scene] I'd try to intimidate them. And they didn't have it, and so I thought, 'Oh, okay. I've got to step back.' It was really a conscious thing. So I went back to my trailer, and I knitted a lot and seethed. I don't know if it helped them, but it helped me."

Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci in The Devil Wears Prada 2Credit: 20th Century Studios

As for revisiting the role of Priestly, for which she earned her 14th Oscar nomination, Streep says the experience was "kind of easy."

"I think you keep these characters," she adds, "so I liked going back into it and discovering her again."

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now in theaters.

on People

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