Meryl Streep Calls Margaret Thatcher 'Pioneer' with 'Some Kind of Greatness'

Meryl Streep’s politics hardly aligned with those of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Yet Streep shared many positive thoughts about Thatcher’s position in world history while promoting The Iron Lady, her Oscar-winning 2011 biopic of the conservative icon.

Now, with news of Thatcher’s passing at the age of 87, Streep released a statement to the press regarding her fuller views on the former leader’s legacy.

Those expecting yet another tacky celebrity smackdown will be pleasantly surprised. Streep can’t resist disagreeing with Thatcher’s philosophies anew, but she does so with admirable restraint while acknowledging what her leadership meant to future generations of young women.

“Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others,” Streep said. “There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty….”

“To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas — wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now — without corruption — I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle,” Streep said. “To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.”