Oscar winner Meryl Streep was initially set to follow a different career path, but she made a crucial mistake that led her to take a different path.
Hollywood wouldn’t have been the same if Meryl Streep’s initial career plans had worked out the way she intended.
The actress has been open about how she almost had a completely different career path, but one mistake prevented her from pursuing the field of her dreams.
While the Oscar winner began acting when she was in elementary school, making her debut as a robot in a school play, she didn’t want to pursue acting as a career. Instead, Meryl wanted to be a lawyer. Her first school play led to starring roles in school musicals and she eventually enrolled at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama.
While there, she considered pursuing law, but she fell asleep during the law school entrance exam, inspiring her to postpone that goal.
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The actress revealed that while she had no intention of pursuing acting full-time and wanted to pursue a legal career, the mistake led her down a different path. Not only that, but when Meryl was a student at the Yale School of Drama, she said that she was constantly chosen for plays over other women, and said that it would make her “feel sick.” After performing in a play with Rip Torn, she fell asleep and missed the LSATs.
“I loved[acting]but I thought it was frivolous,” the Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying in 2010. “I remember thinking, ‘Okay, this is stupid.’ Oh yeah, you’re going to be an actress, for sure. I’m going to do something serious with my life. I’m going to be an environmental lawyer.”
“Then I fell asleep during the law school entrance exam, so I took it as a sign from heaven to stay in drama school,” he shared.
Considering the numerous honors the actress received thanks to her prolific acting skills, it’s safe to say that acting may have been her true calling. Meryl has won three Oscars in her career. She also holds the record for most Academy Award nominations of any actor, and so far she has been nominated 21 times.
Like Meryl, other actors also pursued careers in different fields before coming to Hollywood. George Clooney and Brad Pitt both pursued careers in journalism before becoming Hollywood heartthrobs.
