Meryl Streep dished about her newest Oscar nomination in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres airing Monday, Jan. 20 on The Ellen Show.

Meryl Streep Earns Record Breaking 18th Oscar Nomination

Streep was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Violet Weston in August: Osage County. This make’s Streep’s eighteenth Oscar nomination, the most of any actor.

With this most recent nomination, Streep broke her own record, previously held at 17 Oscar nods – she has won three times. Streep reveals she didn’t think she would be nominated this year and was fast asleep when the nominations were announced last Thursday.

“You read the papers and they all say, ‘oh, she doesn’t have a chance.’ Because I’m so…old news,” Streep said.

Meryl Streep Apologized To Emma Thompson After Oscar Snub

Though Streep admits to be excited about her nomination, she revealed to Ellen that she feels guilty to be nominated when her friend, Emma Thompson, is not. Thompson was considered by many to be a shoe-in nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Saving Mr. Banks.

“There were so many performances this year that were great. I mean, I’m thinking of my friend, Emma Thompson…I was really shocked and I wrote her this long, heartfelt e-mail about how bad I felt. And she wrote me back and said, ‘Good,’” Streep told Ellen, laughing.

Ellen agreed that there were many talented actors who failed to be recognized by the Academy, which Streep then described as, “A lot of surprises and injustices.”

Streep and Thompson are good friends; in fact, just recently, Streep was tasked with presenting the National Board of Review (NBR) award for Best Actress to Thompson. In her tribute to her actress and friend, Streep praised Thompson and wrote a short Ode, hinting that she believed Thompson deserved to win an Oscar statuette for her work, titled “An Ode to Emma, or What Emma is Owed”:

“We think the Brits are brittle, they think that we are mush
They are more sentimental, though we do tend to gush
Volcanoes of emotion concealed beneath that lip
Where we are prone to guzzle, they tip the cup and sip
But when eruption bubbles from nowhere near the brain
It’s seismic, granite crumbles, the heart overflows like rain
Like lava, all that feeling melts down like Oscar gold
And Emma leaves us reeling, a knockout, truth be told.”

Ellen promised she would make sure to interact with Streep when she hosts the Oscars come March 2. Streep’s interview with Ellen is scheduled to air tonight, Monday, Jan. 20.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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