Meryl Is Going To Rock Your World

There is no one cooler or tougher in Hollywood than Meryl Streep, which is why the news that she might be playing a "hard rocking mama" for her newest role is no surprise at all. Reportedly, Meryl Streep will star in Ricki and the Flash, directed by Jonathan Demme and penned by Diablo Cody. According to Deadline, Streep would take on the role of "a rock n' roll-loving woman who chased her tattered dream at the price of her family, but gets a last chance to get right by reconciling with her estranged daughter... her character belts out hard rock at night and is a grocery store checkout lady by day."

Now, don't let the lighthearted movies on her resume (It's Complicated or Mamma Mia! or Music of the Heart) or even the very heavy ones (Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Doubt, among many) fool you into thinking this wouldn't be right up her alley because Meryl Streep is as badass as it gets on and off-screen. Off-screen, she's the life of the party and the BFF everyone wants (but only Sandra Bullock is lucky enough to have, sorry 50 Cent) and as beautiful and respected as she was when she first broke on to the scene. On-screen, well, there's a reason why she's the most-nominated actress in Oscar history.

While the versatile 64-year-old actress has never played a rocker before, that doesn't mean she hasn't rocked the hell out of some other badass characters. Here's three supreme examples of why Ricki and the Flash will hardly be the first time Meryl has been, for lack of a better word, hardcore.

Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

It takes a special kind of actor to not only make the villain the most compelling character in the story, but one that you actually find yourself siding with from time-to-time. Miranda Priestly seemed like the boss from hell, but you have to admit, she got shit done and she knew who she was. Granted, she was a career-obsessed back-stabber, but she looked damn good doing it. Streep managed to take a character that could have been cartoonish, and made her a fully-realized human being who was capable of hurling some truly cutting insults and serious shade at anyone that dared to cross her. The Devil Wears Prada became something of an instant classic in 2006 and it was all thanks to Meryl. (Okay, and a little bit of Emily Blunt, too.)

Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes Her

If you don't think Meryl is willing to get weird for a role, then you haven't seen her head-turning (literally) performance in the supremely bizarre 1992 dark comedy Death Becomes Her. In it Meryl plays a man-stealing, youth-and-beauty obsessed actress who takes a potion that allows her to live forever, no matter how many times she's thrown down steps or has gigantic holes in her stomach. The special effects may have been what put this movie on the map, but it's Meryl's fearlessness to not only cheat death in some pretty horrifying (albeit, badass) ways, but to play such an unlikable person.

Gail Hartman in The River Wild

Okay, what couldn't Gail Hartman do? Because last I checked she could speak sign language, navigate the treacherous gauntlet on a white water rafting trip gone awry, and kill the two scummy criminals that held her family hostage. 1994's The River Wild is Meryl's lone action flick, and wouldn't you know it, it's an awesome one.

If Streep can handle all of that, and much, much more, then she's definitely prepared for something a little more rock n' roll.

Image: Twentieth Century Fox