With 18 Oscar nominations under her belt, actress Meryl Streep still shows plenty of passion, and that’s not only evident in the difficult roles she plays, but you can also get a sense of that passion when she talks about choosing those roles.

Right now Streep is nominated for yet another Oscar, and she’s getting a lot of praise for playing Violet Weston in the film August: Osage County, and although she enjoyed taking on the role, she said it started out very difficult, mainly because the character she played is so flawed and the film follows a pretty dark story line.

The “reality is that’s where it begins, where it emanates from is a very unpleasant place,” she said when she spoke to a slew of French reporters recently.

“She has cancer in her mouth. She chooses to smoke constantly in the face of that, she has chemotherapy…she’s a drug addict….it’s all a toxic mix, a nasty place to live.”

The 64 year old said she first learned of the character when she saw the Broadway version of the movie many years ago, and she was completely blown away by the dark, yet very funny plot line, and she thought playing Violet West would be a wonderful challenge for her.

“I saw the play seven years ago,” she recalled. “I remember it hit all of us like a freight train. I was entranced. It made me laugh and it shocked me.”

In addition, Streep said that although she’s been active in movies since 1971, she’s thrilled at the fact that movie goers and the film industry aren’t sick of her yet, because as we all know Hollywood can be the most finicky industry on earth.

“That is the most unbelievable thing,” she said. “That they are not tired of me yet or of my work, so I’m very happy about that. Very gratified.”

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