The love story of Meryl Streep and her lover John Cazale feels like a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy. With heartbreaks, love at first sight, and fighting against the world, Streep and John Cazale started maddeningly falling in love with each other.
As if it was an unjust will, John Cazale was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Falling short on money and the power struggles of Hollywood caused Streep to take work in Austria all the while she was constantly worrying about her ill love who was waiting for her at home!
When Meryl Streep Fell In Love With John Cazale
Meryl Streep and John Cazale met in 1976 for the first time and had an instant spark between them. Flirting through lines, and mesmerizing eyes, Streep once said “He wasn’t like anybody I’d ever met” And that it was the “specificity of him”, and his “humanity and his curiosity about people, his compassion.”
After moving in together, John Cazale became sick enough to miss out on a play which was concerning for the director. Booking an appointment with a doctor, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, and director Joe Papp realized that Cazale had terminal lung cancer. Being a very good friend, Al Pacino would often take Cazale to the radiotherapy appointments and sit with him.
Much later, when John Cazale was attached to the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, Meryl Streep took on the role of a submissive passive girl (which she hated) just so that she could be near her lover when the production company EMI wanted him to be fired since the insurance cost would be quite significant. As per Streep, Robert De Niro paid the insurance price but he didn’t confirm or deny it.
Meryl Streep Had To Move Away From John Cazale For Work
Taking up work in the miniseries titled Holocaust, Streep hated the role since they were actually shooting in Austria in one of those concentration camps and the place felt grim. The money paid well but the series caused Meryl Streep to be away from her love for two and a half months!
“I was going crazy. John was sick, and I wanted to be with him,” she said (via NY Post). After Streep went back, John Cazale was worse than before. Taking themselves out of the public eye, the two spent 5 months together.
On 12th March 1978, Meryl Streep was sitting by Cazale’s side when the actor drew his last breath. Streep vividly remembered Cazale telling her weakly “It’s all right…it’s all right” before closing his eyes for the last time.
