Meryl Streep has broken her own Oscar record. The actress received her 21st Academy Award nomination, in the best actress category, for her performance as Katherine Graham in “The Post.”
The nod extends Streep’s record by nine over Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who are tied in second place with a dozen each.
Streep has won Oscars for “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1979, “Sophie’s Choice” in 1982, and “The Iron Lady” in 2011. She’s received four nominations since then for “August: Osage County,” “Into the Woods,” “Florence Foster Jenkins,” and now “The Post.”
Streep also nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a drama for “The Post,” but lost to “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” star Frances McDormand.
Her performance as the widowed Graham has been widely praised for its nuance as her character deals with the fallout from her 1971 decision for The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers in the face of opposition from President Richard Nixon’s administration.
“The Post” is Streep’s first collaboration with director Steven Spielberg and the first time that she’s acted opposite Tom Hanks, who portrays Post editor Ben Bradlee.
Streep’s first Oscar nomination came in 1978 for “The Deer Hunter.” She’s also been up for “A Cry in the Dark,” “Adaptation,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Doubt,” “The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” “Ironweed,” “Julie & Julia,” “Music of the Heart,” “One True Thing,” “Out of Africa,” “Postcards from the Edge,” and “Silkwood.”
Streep is contending for her fourth Oscar against McDormand, Saoirse Ronan in “Lady Bird,” Margot Robbie in “I, Tonya,” and Sally Hawkins in “The Shape of Water.” It’s the fifth nomination for “McDormand,” who won for “Fargo” in 1997, and the third for Ronan. Hawkins has been nominated once before for “Blue Jasmine.” It’s Robbie’s first nom.
Hepburn is the only person to have won four acting Oscars. Streep and Nicholson have won three each, along with Ingrid Bergman, Walter Brennan, and Daniel Day-Lewis, who also received a nom on Tuesday.
