After reading the script, Washington – at the top of the filmmakers’ list to play the tormented Army Major Ben Marco – immediately agreed to star in the role played by Frank Sinatra in the 1962 film directed by John Frankenheimer.

“When playing a part that has already been created by another actor, the decision always arises as to whether or not seeing that interpretation would be valuable. I chose not to look at the original movie so that my ideas about Marco would be completely my own,” says Washington. “This is a very interesting, complicated story, and my character is very complex. What Marco remembers about the ambush doesn’t coincide with what he sees in his dreams and believes to be true. So he’s very conflicted. He’s been taught what to say, but that’s not what he actually feels.”

When another soldier approaches Marco with claims of nightmares similar to his own, he is not motivated to act on his suspicions, until Shaw unexpectedly runs for vice president. And there to thwart Marco as she manipulates her son into the White House is Shaw’s unstoppable mother, Senator Eleanor Shaw, determined to see her son rise to power at any price. Portrayed by two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, the formidable Senator Shaw is a woman willing to destroy anything standing in the way of what she wants.

“I just love the way Ellie Shaw is described in the screenplay – ‘ageless with soft curves that conceal razor claws and a titanium backbone,’” says Streep, who has been nominated for 13 Oscars . “How could I possibly not relish portraying a juicy character like that?”

For the role of Raymond Shaw, Ellie’s golden boy who becomes the titular “Manchurian Candidate,” the filmmakers cast Liev Schreiber, a widely respected actor whose lengthy film credits – including key roles in “Ransom,” “The Sum of All Fears” and “Kate & Leopold” – are matched by his work on the stage, playing the title role in critical successes such as “Henry V” and “Hamlet,” and appearing in Neil LaBute’s “The Mercy Seat” and Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal.”

“Raymond is a reluctant hero whose fame, to his dismay, fuels his political career and his mother’s ambitions,” observes Schreiber. “But although he’s in a position of power, Raymond is truly powerless against his mother, a woman so controlling she will, on occasion, decide what he should wear.”

Schreiber believes that Meryl Streep makes Raymond’s mother not only a palatable multilayered character but also someone with whom audiences will actually be able to identify. “What Meryl brings to the character is a cloaked tenderness that will surprise people with Ellie Shaw’s depth and ability to love.”

Director Jonathan Demme, winner of the Academy Award for his stunning direction of “The Silence of the Lambs,” is thrilled to be working with stars of the caliber of Washington, Streep and Schreiber. He also feels that the screenplay’s up-to-the-minute take on “The Manchurian Candidate” is both as exciting and contemporary as tomorrow’s headlines.

“With the nation’s eye focused on a presidential election this year,” Demme says, “I couldn’t think of a better time to address darker themes about the political process and the forces that try to undermine it.” Producer Tina Sinatra couldn’t agree more, as did her legendary father, the late Frank Sinatra, who owned the rights to the original film.

“In 1991, I asked my father what he thought of the idea to contemporize ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and he said he thought it was smart and would have greater audience appeal today,” remembers Sinatra, who later obtained full rights to the story. “What’s most important to me is retaining the human stories that are so crucial to a film like this. The humanity of it is timeless, and updating the film’s battle to the Gulf War makes a lot of sense as well, especially considering how politically pertinent that part of the world is today.”

In addition to the challenges demanded by such an excellent modernization of the original film and screenplay, reteaming with Washington, whom he had directed in the acclaimed groundbreaking film “Philadelphia,” was an irresistible draw for Demme. “Denzel is one of the greatest actors of all time in my opinion,” says the director. “It’s not easy to portray someone whose sanity is in question – especially when that person also questions himself – and Denzel absolutely nails it. The deep, rich layers that he brings to Marco’s character enrich the entire film.”

Demme also notes that Senator Eleanor Shaw has been significantly updated into a more complex character. A calculating wife to the vice-presidential candidate in the book, the contemporary version of the character is an influential politician in her own right, as well as a manipulative mother pushing her son toward the vice presidency, and ultimately, the highest office in the land.

“Ellie Shaw is a woman who adores her son and believes in him,” says Streep. “She’s also a mother who is achieving through her son the political position she feels has been denied her. So while Ellie grooms her son for leadership, she is also fulfilling her own destiny.”

Demme enthusiastically concurs. “Meryl’s take on Ellie filled me with ideas and excitement,” the director recalls. “And I still ask myself: did I actually have the opportunity to work with Meryl Streep? The chance to collaborate with her is any director’s dream come true.”

Demme was also blown away by Schreiber’s stunning performance, especially in scenes with powerhouse actors such as Washington and Streep. “It’s not merely that Liev holds his own with these established masters,” says Demme. “He’s right there with them. His work on this project brought out the best in everyone he worked with.”

Academy Award winner Jon Voight takes on the role of Senator Jordan, a failed contender for the vice-presidential nomination and Ellie’s longtime nemesis. Voight describes his character as one of the hardworking “good guys” in Congress – and one of the few sympathetic ears to Marco.

“This is a complicated, very rich tale with deeply felt, well-drawn and often dangerous characters,” observes Voight. “A film as multidimensional as this really needs a master storyteller like Jonathan Demme to bring it up to its full potential. That’s why it’s so riveting.”

Adding further dimension to the film were the strong supporting roles the screenplay offered, an opportunity that Demme truly relished. “I love working with a big cast,” says the director. “There are so many extraordinary parts in this movie, brought to life by some truly exceptional talent. It’s a thrill to watch when each of the supporting parts shines because of the great actors behind them.”

One key character in the film driving the plot is Rosie, the mysterious young woman Marco meets on a train. Having worked with Demme when she starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in “Beloved,” Kimberly Elise was ecstatic to land the coveted role of the FBI agent who gets deeply involved with the troubled Marco.

“Rosie has a heart of gold, and she’s one of the few people willing to find out what’s going on inside this man,” says Elise, who also starred opposite Washington in “John Q.” “Denzel is so exciting to watch as Ben Marco because we so often see him playing characters that are in control, and in this instance he gets to portray someone with a lot of vulnerabilities – a strong man, but one who’s lost in a web he can’t figure out.”

Featured in the pivotal role of Al Melvin, a disturbed veteran who approaches Ben Marco about his own dreams of the horrors in Kuwait, is Jeffrey Wright, winner of both a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award for his multiple roles in “Angels in America.”

According to Demme, it is Melvin’s appearance that forces Marco to reconsider what really happened to the men under his command – and to himself – in the Gulf.

“Melvin’s part in this story is very vital, vivid and extraordinarily important,” says Demme. “I couldn’t have been happier. Jeffrey brought all of his Jeffrey Wright brilliance to his performance.”

Rounding out the star-studded cast are Swiss actor Bruno Ganz in the role of Richard Delp, a rogue scientist who tries to help Marco retrieve his memories; Dean Stockwell, Jude Ciccolella and John Bedford Lloyd as executives of the Manchurian Global Corporation, a major contributor to Raymond’s campaign; Miguel Ferrer in the role of Colonel Garret, Marco’s commanding officer; actor/director Simon McBurney as Noyle, a doctor who specializes in the brain; and singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, who makes his feature film debut as Laurent Tokar, a British guide to the Americans in Kuwait.

Finally, appearing as political heavyweights are the legendary producer Roger Corman, who produced several of Demme’s earlier films, and famed author Walter Mosley, whose novel Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Washington, was produced for the screen by Demme.

According to the star of “The Manchurian Candidate,” Denzel Washington, the fact that the film boasts so much talent is a testament to a unanimous, heartfelt admiration for director Jonathan Demme.

“He brings such positive energy that he makes actors feel like they can try anything that they feel might work,” observes Washington. “I’ve learned a great deal from him as a human being, as an actor and as a filmmaker.”

Central to the theme of “The Manchurian Candidate” are the concepts of memory manipulation and mind control, both areas that director Jonathan Demme wanted to infuse with as much authenticity as possible. To that end, he enlisted the expertise of Dr. Jay Lombard, director of the Brain Behavior Center in Nyack, New York. A behavioral neurologist, Lombard appreciated Demme’s drive for accuracy throughout the film, specifically with regard to scenes concerning scientific or medical technology.

“There have been significant advances in the study of the brain and mind control,” observes Lombard, who came to Demme’s attention because of his work with autism and other afflictions affecting the brain. “My role was to look at the original film, which used brainwashing to manipulate Marco and his men, and to update it with today’s highly advanced technology.”

Demme comments, “It was crucial to the tone of the film that the scientific aspects not only be grounded in the absolute latest technological progress but also point towards the sinister directions that such progress might lead to in the future.”

Co-screenwriter Daniel Pyne adds, “Whether or not what we’ve envisioned will ever be possible, my concern in updating Condon’s premise was to make the brainwashing of Shaw and Marco feel real. You have to believe that it happened, and you have to fear the consequences of it.”

According to Lombard, there is a pain/pleasure center of the brain which neuroscientists believe drives a significant amount of behaviors. In fact, researchers have inserted electrodes into the brains of rats, developing what they call “roborats,” whose actions can be manipulated not unlike Liev Schreiber’s character Raymond Shaw.

“What’s so frightening about this movie is that it lends support to how vulnerable our brains are to external manipulation, both positive and negative,” says Lombard. “Our memories are so tenuous and subject to malleability, it’s literally mind-bending. We all have had moments where we wonder if what we remember is real, and if it isn’t, what really did happen? Essentially, this film opens up a very scary, reality-based Pandora’s box of brain manipulation. It’s telling us that all the science about brain behavior is out there, and if used immorally, anything can happen.”

About The Production

Besides attracting major talent in front of the camera, renowned director Jonathan Demme continues to draw highly skilled professionals to work with him behind the camera. Once again he collaborates with key members of his creative team: cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, ASC, production designer Kristi Zea, editor and Academy Award® nominee Carol Littleton, A.C.E., and composer and Academy Award® winner Rachel Portman, whose score features contributions by Wyclef Jean.

Demme began production at PS 32, an elementary school in Yonkers, New York, with a key scene that introduces audiences to Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and to the inner conflict he’s about to face. In the sequence, Marco, formerly in command of troops in the Gulf War and now relegated to the Army’s public relations department, talks to a group of Boy Scouts about the ambush of his patrol in Kuwait and the heroism of Marco’s staff sergeant, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber).

In order to film the crucial battle scenes that Marco describes at the school, Demme and his team did extensive research into the Gulf War, keeping full-time researchers and military advisors close at hand to ensure accuracy in every detail.

Since shooting in Kuwait was clearly out of the question, the filmmakers created the desert closer to home at the sand mine Sahara Sand. In only two weeks, members of the film crew moved tons of sand in order to build two roads that served as the site where Marco and his men fall under enemy attack.

“Filming those battle sequences was like working in a huge sandbox,” recalls production designer Kristi Zea, who also created Marco’s apartment in Washington, D.C. “I based the outside of his place after the typical mock-Tudor residential buildings I found in the D.C. area, but the interior design had a lot to do with Denzel Washington’s input.”

A small dark space filled with books and newspapers was the actor’s idea, remembers Zea, who had originally pictured Marco to be meticulously neat, in keeping with his military background. Washington, however, imagined that the character’s obsessive nature would turn him into a pack rat.

“Maybe all Marco can do is hold himself together by putting on his uniform every morning,” says Washington. “But his house afforded the opportunity to paint a picture that was in stark contrast – full of signs indicating a man who is on the verge of an internal breakdown. I think he would be unbelievably messy, not able to throw anything out because he’s obsessed with piecing together what happened to him.”

Zea also delved into the Washington, D.C., political arena that is the hothouse milieu of Liev Schreiber’s character, Congressman Raymond Shaw, and his mother, Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, portrayed by Meryl Streep. In particular, she sought striking visuals that would represent the high-stakes, national campaign of a Robert Arthur/Raymond Shaw ticket.

“I wanted to achieve a mood with Works Progress Administration (WPA) style posters that grew out of the 1930s Depression Era,” says Zea. “To achieve this, our graphic designers came up with some astounding stuff, including an eerie Arthur/Shaw campaign slogan, ‘Secure Tomorrow,’ which was coupled with a visual akin to the ‘Uncle Sam Wants You’ poster – a pointed finger coming out of a red, white and blue starburst.”

The filmmakers’ research included trips to the U.S. Senate, where they visited the offices of Senator Barbara Boxer in order to create an authentic look for the senatorial offices of Eleanor Shaw (Streep) and her political rival, Senator Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight). To that end, the historic Yonkers City Hall, an imposing Beaux Arts building dating from 1911, captured the old-world elegance and grave atmosphere of the senate.

Similarly, the production sought out homes on the Potomac owned by our nation’s more prominent politicians as references for Eleanor Prentiss Shaw’s sprawling mansion. Old Westbury Manor, a beautiful house on Long Island, New York, fit the bill perfectly. Built in 1906 as the country estate of John S. Phipps, son of a partner in Carnegie Steel, the house was so close to what the filmmakers envisioned (both inside and out) that their only changes before filming were to add new draperies and a few personal items from the fictional Prentiss-Shaw political dynasty.

New York, where Marco follows Raymond on the campaign trail, offered the filmmakers a variety of locations throughout the city, including the Compass Restaurant on the Upper West Side, the Plaza Hotel, the New York Public Library for Science, Business and Industry, the Javits Center, Times Square, Penn Station, the ballroom of the Regent Wall Street Hotel and Central Park.

A key location was the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse. Built in 1902, it served as the setting for a Shaw fundraising gala where Marco seeks out Raymond among the Washington elite.

In creating the costumes for that well-dressed group, two-time Academy Award®-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky describes Washington, D.C., as “a world of suits, suits, suits.” Accordingly, he dressed Liev Schreiber’s Raymond, a young man born into a prominent political family, in high-end custom-made suits, similar to the impeccable look of Jon Voight’s Senator Jordan, also a political insider.

Having worked six times with Meryl Streep, Wolsky says he was careful to give her character Ellie Shaw more polish and style than the average female politician. “We wanted to avoid the kind of lacquered hairdo women in politics often have to have because they’re on camera so much and don’t want their hair to move,” explains Wolsky. “Also, Ellie Shaw comes from an almost aristocratic line, so we wanted to give her a look that reflects someone accustomed to having money. Therefore, she’s dressed in attire of the highest quality and wears fine jewelry from the prestigious Fred Leighton collection.”

In order to costume the military characters and sequences, Wolsky researched the uniforms worn by American soldiers in the Gulf War and had replicas made by authentic military sources. A further challenge to the costume designer was Ben Marco’s wardrobe out of uniform, and the changes in Marco’s look throughout the film.

Prior to filming, Wolsky, who worked with Washington on “The Pelican Brief,” consulted the actor. “He’s really a brilliant actor, and being so good at what he does, he wants to offer his input as to how the character is going to look,” says Wolsky. “We talked about it a lot and decided that when not in uniform, Marco had to have a signature look, so we came up with a khaki-colored raincoat that had a slight military echo.”

One sequence in the film that was left entirely to the filmmakers’ imaginations is the dreamscape that Marco continually revisits in his nightmares, a frightening series of visions resulting from the character’s twisted, violent memories of Kuwait. Production designer Kristi Zea found the dreamscape sequence to be her most intriguing challenge – and the most thrilling work she did on the film.

“Suddenly you’re in a whole other world of the mind where there are no laws and there is no reality,” says Zea. “Because of that, you have the freedom to make your designs as crazy or as odd as you want.” Working closely with cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, Zea delved into surrealistic art and the Dada movement as inspiration for the style of the horrific dreamscape, which also creeps into the mad drawings done by Jeffrey Wright’s character, Al Melvin. Painstakingly drawn by art department team member and film student Jimmy Joe Roche, the bizarre artwork is discovered by Marco, who searches out his disturbed missing comrade, only to find his squalid apartment strewn with nightmarish images of blood and death, featuring soldiers with whom Melvin served, including Marco and Shaw.

“These images started with looking at pieces of paper found in the streets of New York City, and by looking at the drawings of some of my folk art heroes,” says Roche. “I tried to work in such a way that the results would seem like the creation of a madman – I didn’t want to create works of art, but rather, road maps of Melvin’s descent into madness.”

“Jonathan Demme wanted to mirror the paranoia in Melvin’s drawings with Marco’s paranoia,” remembers Fujimoto. “He wanted to give audiences a visual connection between Melvin’s room and Marco’s mind. In that way, the cinematography is almost documentary-like, with the camera sort of poking around, probing to find something in the center of the frame that’s not there.”

Fujimoto’s innovative camerawork adds intensity to the story’s chilling suspense, which co-screenwriter Daniel Pyne believes will have audiences responding on a myriad of different levels.

“I think people will walk away from this film having lost themselves in Marco’s emotional experience,” says Pyne. “At the same time, because of the compelling performances of all the actors, I think they’re going to come out of theaters with all sorts of ideas spinning around in their heads.”

Producer Tina Sinatra, daughter of the late Frank Sinatra, who portrayed Marco in the original 1962 film, observes that as spooky as the story is, its true core is human emotion. “It’s about a group of individuals who are in serious jeopardy because of a similar experience they cannot explain,” says Sinatra. “And Marco in particular is going to figure it out … or die trying.”

Denzel Washington agrees wholeheartedly. “The film is essentially a very human tale about how the spirit wins out,” says the actor. “In a nutshell, what the story is saying is that the heart is stronger than anything.”

JONATHAN DEMME (Director/Producer) has 18 films to his credit, including “The Agronomist,” “The Truth About Charlie,” “Beloved,” “The Silence of the Lambs” (for which he won an Academy Award® for Best Director), “Philadelphia,” “Married to the Mob,” “Something Wild,” “Swimming to Cambodia” and “Melvin and Howard.” Demme was twice named Best Director by the New York Film Critics, for “Melvin and Howard” and for “The Silence of the Lambs.” Additional producing credits include “Devil in a Blue Dress,” “Household Saints,” “That Thing You Do!,” “Ulee’s Gold” and “Adaptation.”

Demme’s films have been nominated for 20 Academy Awards . “The Silence of the Lambs” received five Academy Awards in 1991 – for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay Adaptation. His films have won screenplay Oscars twice, “Melvin and Howard” (Best Original Screenplay, 1980) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (Best Screenplay Adaptation, 1991), and two of the Best Actor awards of the 1990s went to actors he directed, Anthony Hopkins (“The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991) and Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” 1993), with Jodie Foster receiving the Best Actress award (“The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991) as well.

Since 1988, Demme has worked with a versatile team at his company Clinica Estetico, producing or directing a number of documentaries as well as feature film projects. Many of these have focused on Haiti, such as the acclaimed “Haiti Dreams of Democracy,” “Tonbe Leve (Fall Down, Get Up)” and “Courage and Pain.” In 2004, he completed “The Agronomist,” a documentary on the Haitian radio journalist Jean Dominique, who was assassinated in April 2000 on the steps of his radio station. He also produced “Konbit,” an album of Haitian music, and has published four books about the art of Haiti.

He also directed the documentary “Cousin Bobby,” and produced the Academy Award -nominated biography “Mandela,” as well as “Into the Rope!” (about Double Dutch), “The Uttmost” (a portrait of producer Kenny Utt) and “One Foot on a Banana Peel, The Other Foot in the Grave” (about living with AIDS). He also recently produced “Beah: A Black Woman Speaks,” a documentary on the life of Beah Richards, directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton.

Demme’s creative interests have also lured him into the musical domain. He directed the Robyn Hitchcock concert film, “Storefront Hitchcock,” as well as the award-winning Talking Heads concert film, “Stop Making Sense.” He has directed Artists United Against Apartheid’s “Sun City,” Neil Young’s “The Complex Sessions” and music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Les Frères Parent, The Neville Brothers, KRS-One and the Feelies, among others.

Two-time Academy Award®-winning actor DENZEL WASHINGTON portrays Army Major Ben Marco, a talented career soldier determined to discover the truth about his experiences in Kuwait during the Gulf War.

In such roles as the South African freedom fighter Steven Biko in “Cry Freedom,” Shakespeare’s tragic historical figure “Richard III,” the womanizing trumpet player Bleek Gilliam in Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues,” and his Academy Award®-winning portrayal of an embittered runaway slave in Ed Zwick’s “Glory,” Denzel Washington has amazed and entertained us with a rich and colorful array of characters distinctly his own.

Washington was awarded the Oscar® for Best Actor for one of his most critically acclaimed performances to date, as a grizzled LAPD veteran in “Training Day,” directed by Antoine Fuqua. In 2002, Denzel Washington made his feature film directorial debut with “Antwone Fisher.” Based on a true-life story, the film follows Fisher, a troubled young sailor played by newcomer Derek Luke, as he comes to terms with his past. The film won critical praise, and was awarded the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, as well as winning an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Washington.

Most recently, Washington starred in Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire,” in which he portrayed a former Marine who swears vengeance on people who have harmed the family he’s sworn to protect. In 2003, he starred in Carl Franklin’s “Out of Time,” in which he played a Florida police chief who must solve a double homicide before he falls under suspicion for the murders himself. He was also seen in “John Q,” a story about a down-on-his-luck father whose son is in need of a heart transplant, which garnered Washington a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.

In September of 2000, he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s box-office sensation ($115 million domestic gross) “Remember the Titans,” a fact-based film about the 1971 integration of a high school football team. In 1999, he starred in “The Hurricane,” for director Norman Jewison, and received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award® nomination (his fourth) for his portrayal of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the world middleweight champion boxer who was wrongfully imprisoned twice for murder.

In November of 1999, he starred in “The Bone Collector,” the adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s novel about the search for a serial killer, co-starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Phillip Noyce. In 1998, he starred in the crime thriller “Fallen,” for director Greg Hoblit, and in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game.” He also re-teamed with “Glory” director Ed Zwick for the terrorist thriller “The Siege,” co-starring Annette Bening and Bruce Willis.

In 1996, Washington starred in the critically acclaimed military drama “Courage Under Fire,” for director Ed Zwick, and also starred opposite Whitney Houston in Penny Marshall’s romantic comedy “The Preacher’s Wife.” In 1995, he starred opposite Gene Hackman in Tony Scott’s underwater action adventure “Crimson Tide”; as an ex-cop released from prison to track down a criminal in the futuristic thriller “Virtuosity”; and as World War II veteran Easy Rawlins in the 1940s romantic thriller “Devil in a Blue Dress” (which Washington’s Mundy Lane Entertainment produced with Jonathan Demme’s Clinica Estetico).

Washington also starred in the title role of the complex and controversial Black activist in director Spike Lee’s biographical epic, “Malcolm X,” for which the actor received, among many other accolades, an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor.

A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington studied acting under Robinson Stone at Fordham University and later attended San Francisco’s prestigious American Conservatory Theater.

Washington’s professional New York theater career began with Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park and was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway productions, including “A Soldier’s Play,” for which he won an Obie Award. Washington’s stage appearances also include the Broadway production of “Checkmates” and the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Richard III.”

Washington first came to the attention of American audiences when he was cast as Dr. Phillip Chandler in NBC’s long-running, hit television series “St. Elsewhere.” In 1984, he re-created his role from “A Soldier’s Play” for Norman Jewison’s film version, “A Soldier’s Story,” and soon went on to star in Sidney Lumet’s “Power” and Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom,” for which he received his first Oscar® nomination. Washington also starred in the action adventure film “Ricochet,” in Mira Nair’s bittersweet comedy “Mississippi Masala,” as well as in “For Queen and Country,” “The Mighty Quinn,” “Heart Condition” and Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues.”

Additional film credits include Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Jonathan Demme’s controversial “Philadelphia,” with Tom Hanks, and “The Pelican Brief,” based on the John Grisham novel.

MERYL STREEP plays Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, a powerful U.S. senator who has ambitious plans for her son, war hero and congressman, Raymond Shaw.

Regarded as one of the world’s finest actors, Meryl Streep has portrayed an astonishing array of characters in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theater through television and film. A two-time Academy Award® winner and a recipient of a record-breaking 13 Oscar® nominations, Streep recently was honored by the American Film Institute with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She also received the new Dramatists’ Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Stanislavsky Award at the Moscow International Film Festival. In addition, Streep was awarded a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her starring role alongside Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO epic “Angels in America,” directed by Mike Nichols, from Tony Kushner’s adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. Streep made her acting debut at Vassar College starring in the title role in Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” and later won a scholarship to the Yale School of Drama where she received an M.F.A. degree and the Carol Dye Acting Award, becoming the first woman in the school’s history to receive this honor.

After a summer with the O’Neill Playwrights conference in Connecticut, Streep moved to New York and made her debut in Joseph Papp’s Lincoln Center production of “Trelawney of the Wells.” At Phoenix Repertory, for her performances in rotating productions of the Civil War melodrama “Secret Service,” Arthur Miller’s “A Memory of Two Mondays” and Tennessee Williams’ “27 Wagons Full of Cotton,” Streep won the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater World Award and a Tony nomination. She performed in seven productions during her first season in New York, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of “Henry V” and “Measure for Measure,” opposite John Cazale and Sam Waterston. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical “Happy End,” and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung, off-Broadway production of “Alice at the Palace.” During this period she also won the Emmy for Best Actress for her portrayal of a devastated German wife in the controversial eight-part miniseries “Holocaust.”

Meryl Streep began her feature film career as Jane Fonda’s society friend in “Julia,” directed by Fred Zinnemann. In her second screen role, Streep starred opposite Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken in “The Deer Hunter,” receiving her first Oscar® nomination. Her next film was the political drama “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” with Alan Alda. She returned to the stage that summer to star opposite Raul Julia in the Shakespeare in the Park production of “The Taming of the Shrew,” and during the day alternated filming “Manhattan” for Woody Allen and “Kramer vs. Kramer” with Dustin Hoffman. Playing Hoffman’s troubled ex-wife in a custody battle, she garnered her first Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress.

She won her third Oscar® nomination and the British Academy Award for her next film, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” directed by Karel Reisz, in which she played the dual roles of a sophisticated contemporary actress and a tragic 19th-century heroine. The following year, she won the Academy Award® for Best Actress for her extraordinary performance in the title role of “Sophie’s Choice,” directed by Alan J. Pakula from his adaptation of William Styron’s novel. She was nominated again the next year, for her portrayal of Karen Silkwood, the activist/heroine of Mike Nichols’ “Silkwood.” Reuniting with Robert De Niro in her next film, “Falling in Love,” she won the David Award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar®.

Streep completed two films in 1985: Fred Schepisi’s screen adaptation of David Hare’s “Plenty” and Sydney Pollack’s sweeping romantic adventure “Out of Africa,” for which she received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actress. She then filmed two projects co-starring Jack Nicholson: Mike Nichols’ “Heartburn” and “Ironweed,” directed by Hector Babenco, for which she received her seventh Oscar® nomination. She then traveled to Australia for Fred Schepisi’s “A Cry in the Dark,” in which she played the infamous, unfairly maligned Lindy Chamberlain, a role that won Streep the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, The New York Film Critics Circle, the AFI Award and another Oscar® nomination.

She next won Golden Globe nominations for her work in Susan Seidelman’s “She-Devil” and “Postcards From the Edge” (with Nichols again), starring opposite Shirley MacLaine. This adaptation by Carrie Fisher from her own novel won Streep praise for her singing and yet another Oscar® nomination. She continued to find comedic work; with Albert Brooks in his delicious contemplation of a neurotic’s trial in purgatory in “Defending Your Life,” and in Robert Zemeckis’ satirical look at aging in L.A., “Death Becomes Her,” co-starring Goldie Hawn. After returning to the States from Europe – where she had filmed Bille August’s “The House of the Spirits,” from Isabel Allende’s acclaimed novel – she tackled the physical challenges of an action movie, in “The River Wild,” directed by Curtis Hanson, co-starring Kevin Bacon.

Her next film, Clint Eastwood’s “The Bridges of Madison County,” won her overwhelming acclaim and Screen Actor’s Guild, Golden Globe and Oscar® nominations for her complex portrayal of a lonely Iowa farm wife who opens her heart to a stranger. The following year she was seen opposite Liam Neeson in Barbet Schroeder’s “Before and After,” and opposite Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Marvin’s Room,” for which she received another Golden Globe nomination.

She next returned to television, co-producing with director Jim Abrahams the real-life drama “First Do No Harm” and earning an Emmy nomination for her work as the mother of an epileptic child who pursues alternative therapies.

In 1998, Streep teamed with Renee Zellweger in “One True Thing,” based on Anna Quindlen’s prize-winning novel, winning SAG, Golden Globe and Oscar® nominations for her performance. That same year, Streep appeared in the critically lauded “Dancing at Lughnasa,” based on Brian Friel’s play, directed by Pat O’Connor. In 1999, Streep earned her 12th Academy Award® nomination for Wes Craven’s “Music of the Heart,” the real life story of a teacher and single mother who brings the violin to inner city kids.

In 2001, she returned to Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre in Mike Nichols’ production of “The Seagull,” for the Public Theater’s New York Shakespeare Festival, co-starring Kevin Kline, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, Natalie Portman, John Goodman and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

More recently, her work in Paramount’s “The Hours” won Streep the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival, along with her co-stars Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, as well as SAG and Golden Globe nominations. In the same year, her eccentric portrayal of Susan Orlean in Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” was recognized with a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and BAFTA and Oscar® nominations. She was recently seen in the comedy “Stuck on You” with Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear and Cher. Streep will next star in Paramount’s “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” an adaptation of the beloved children’s books, with Jim Carrey and Jude Law.

Last year she was given an Honorary César for Career Achievement in Paris, where she also was accorded a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest civilian honor given by the French government.