Meryl Streep wins Spain’s prestigious Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts

American actress Meryl Streep has picked up one of Spain’s most prestigious awards, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, one of eight international awards presented by the Princess of Asturias Foundation, named after Princess Leonor, the heir to the Spanish throne.

The 73-year-old is no stranger to winning prizes having amassed three Oscars, three Emmys, nine Golden Globes, two Baftas and the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, amongst others, during an on-screen career spanning nearly 50 years.

Streep praised for on and off-screen work

“Over five decades, Meryl Streep has built up a brilliant career of successive performances in which she brings life to richly complex female characters, which invite the viewer to reflect and form a critical spirit.”, said the jury of the Princess of Astruias foundation. They also highlighted the “honesty and responsibility she brings to her choice of roles, at the service of inspiring and exemplary narratives”, and her commitment to being “a tireless activist for equality”.

Streep’s ‘icon’ status

Streep’s longevity is one of many reasons that she is considered by some to be “the best living actress in Hollywood” or “the best actress of her generation”, although those are labels that she has not always felt comfortable with. On receiving her third Oscar for portraying former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 2012 film The Iron Lady, she explained: “When they said my name, I could hear half of America going, ‘Oh, no. Her again’. Fellow actress Sharon Stone, who worked with Streep on The Laundromat in 2019, even went as far as criticising Hollywood for building her co-star up as an ‘icon’ at the expense of other actresses.

Her first appearance on screen came in the 1977 film Julia, while she was part of an ensemble cast alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in her last project, the 2021 political satire comedy Don’t Look Up.

What Oscars record does Meryl Streep hold?

As well as Streep’s undoubted acting success (no other performer has received as many as her 21 Oscar nominations), she has also been widely praise for her off-screen ventures. The New-Jersey native has been at the forefont of campaigns fighting against gender inequality, as well as the #MeToo movement.

Streep joins composer John Williams and film directors Martin Scorcese and Francis Ford Coppola as a recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts.