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№ 2010.002 — Barnard College — Commencement address
Meryl Streep
Field: arts
Meryl Streep addresses Barnard's class of 2010, using her acting career to reflect on pretending, empathy, and authenticity. She recounts how she once adjusted her personality in high school to appeal to boys before rediscovering herself at women's college, and argues that empathy lies at the heart of acting and of social change. She observes that men are increasingly able to identify with strong female characters, sees this as cultural progress, and urges the graduates to address gender inequality and other global issues, concluding that fame matters less than making one's family proud.
Key moments
- 01 Childhood and high school memories of first acting and 'pretending' to be appealing
- 02 Rediscovering her real self at a single-sex college among supportive friends
- 03 Contrast between male audiences relating to Linda in 'The Deer Hunter' versus Miranda Priestly
- 04 Argument that empathy drives both acting and broader cultural and gender change
- 05 Reflection that fame separates you from reality while purpose comes from empathy and loved ones
Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording