Meryl Streep Discusses Her Character's Awful Singing Skills in Exclusive 'Florence Foster Jenkins' Featurette
Meryl Streep showed off her not-so-melodious pipes in this summer’s Florence Foster Jenkins, the real-life story of an American socialite and singer whose horrendous lack of artistic talent made her an eccentric, yet endearing figure in the New York social scene of the 1940s. In a Yahoo Movies exclusive new behind-the-scenes featurette from the film’s upcoming Blu-ray release (watch it above), the cast and crew discuss how they went about paying tribute to this most untalented amateur soprano.
Related: Red Carpet Flashback! 35 Years of Meryl Streep
Streep and musical director Terry Davies address the real-life Jenkins’ bad singing, which Streep says she first heard when in drama school via recordings that were passed around from classmate to classmate, because of their notoriously awful quality. While Streep says that they were “heartbreakingly funny,” they were also touching, because it was clear that “she loved it.” As for Davies, he too remains fond of Jenkins’s recordings, saying, “There’s a kind of sincerity and innocence to it.”
Related: ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ Review: Meryl Streep Shows Us Artless Diva’s Vocal Strange
You can hear Streep’s approximation of Jenkins’ ear-splitting warbling beginning Nov. 29, when Florence Foster Jenkins — directed by Stephen Frears and co-starring Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson and Nina Arianda — arrives on digital HD. It debuts on Blu-ray on December 13.
‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ Director Stephen Frears Leads Our Tour of His Filmography:
