[Meryl Streep's daughter] Mamie Gummer Signed for Lead in ‘Claire’s Cambodia’

Meryl Streep's daughter is getting to the point where she will stop being referred to as "Meryl Streep's daughter"

Posted by DannyMiller
Friday, November 11, 2011

Mamie Gummer is a star on the rise. With well-received performances in films such as “Evening” and “Taking Woodstock,” and a growing number of TV roles including the “John Adams” mini-series as well as “Off the Map” and “The Good Wife,” 28-year-old Gummer is an actress that people are watching. Oh, did I mention that she’s Meryl Streep’s oldest daughter and bears an uncanny resemblance to the Oscar-winning actress?

Now Deadline reports that Gummer has just been signed to star in a new indie film from writer/director Stacy Sherman to be produced by Billy Ray. “Claire’s Cambodia” tells the story of three estranged sisters who find out that their father is terminally ill. Sherman was nominated for an Oscar for her documentary, “God Sleeps in Rwanda” and co-wrote the upcoming Katherine Heigl film, “One for the Money.”

The Deadline blurb made no mention of Gummer’s connection to Streep, but, sorry Mamie, I didn't have that much self-control. I have to admit that I’m fascinated by acting families, from the Barrymores to the Redgraves to the Olsens (I still can’t believe that Elizabeth Olsen, the star of the excellent “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is the little sister of the Olsen twins!). For many performing children of actors, their parent’s fame is an albatross, a constant reminder that they lack their own identity, or worse, that their success may be related more to nepotism than any actual talent.

I have no idea if Mamie Gummer feels the burden of any of these perceptions. I know that she appeared in the film “Heartburn” with her mother under the name Natalie Stern “to avoid scrutiny” but since she was only three years old at the time, I’m guessing that Streep and her husband Don Gummer made that decision! The good news is that like her brilliant mother, Mamie is busy raking in awards for her excellent stage work. If she plays her cards right, Meryl Streep may one day be referred to as “Mamie Gummer’s mother” instead of the other way around. Now, has anyone signed Kate Winslet's kids yet?