Safety has never been a leading role in the long and glittering career of Meryl Streep. With twenty-one Academy Award nominations to her name, she has repeatedly chosen emotional peril, from Sophie’s Choice to Silkwood and Doubt, relishing authority whether as Margaret Thatcher or Miranda Priestly.

Which is why it is hardly surprising she is reportedly drawn to a role most actors would actively run from.

According to French magazine Marianne, Meryl Streep is being considered to portray Gisèle Pelicot in an upcoming American television series. The project is reportedly based on the high-profile Mazan case, one of the most closely followed criminal trials in contemporary French history.

Gisèle Pelicot is the woman at the center of France’s largest r--- trial. In an interview with BBC Newsnight, she had revealed her discovery that her husband, for years, had rendered her unconscious for horrifying reasons. 

If Meryl Streep proceeds, her performance would join an expanding slate already examining the case, including The Pelicot R--- Case: A Town on Trial, a ninety-minute documentary by ITN Productions aired on Channel 5, a New York documentary play staged at Judson Memorial Church, and an additional project reportedly in development at HBO.

Top 10 Most Memorable Speeches in Oscars History

Should the casting prove accurate, this portrayal would sit beside Streep’s long history of women forged under pressure.

Meryl Streep has consistently gravitated toward women shaped by psychological wounds, scrutiny, and moral consequence rather than comfort. In Sophie’s Choice, Streep embodied Sophie Zawistowski, a Holocaust survivor carrying irreversible psychological damage. The performance, in fact, remains a benchmark for depicting trauma without spectacle.

That pattern continued with A Cry in the Dark, where she played Lindy Chamberlain, a mother publicly vilified after a wrongful conviction. The film mirrors how institutions and media can compound personal tragedy through suspicion, spectacle, and moral judgment.

In Silkwood and The Post, Streep portrayed Karen Silkwood and Katharine Graham, women confronting corporate negligence and systemic exclusion. Off-screen, after she is done giving the warmest shoulders to her successors, she also publicly supports documentaries such as India’s Daughter, reinforcing her long-standing advocacy for survivors of s----- brutality, making the reports of her portraying Gisèle Pelicot as natural as it can get.

Selena Gomez Receives the Rub From Meryl Streep as ‘Emilia Pérez’ Continues Soaring High on Netflix

Do you think Meryl Streep is a good fit for Gisèle Pelicot? Let us know in the comments!