Meryl Streep says she ‘was so in love’ while filming her ‘intimate’ scene with Robert Redford in ‘Out Of Africa’: ‘He really got into it’

Meryl Streep recently returned to her filming of the 1985 film. Outside Africa opposite Robert Redford, with whom she shared one of her favorite “intimate” scenes of her career.

An iconic moment from the Oscar-winning film shows Redford’s character washing his hair by a river while reciting Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

“It’s a sex scene in a way, because it’s so intimate,” she said of the scene during a recent appearance at the Théâtre Debussy in Cannes, per Variety. “We’ve seen so many scenes of people fucking, but we don’t see that loving touch, that attention.”

She said they were warned about animals in the area during filming, which caused problems while filming this intimate riverside scene.

“We had lions, but they were imported from California and they were supposed to be well tamed. That was not the case,” the actress recalled, according to UK Metro. “And the second thing we were told is that the animal that kills the most in Africa is the hippopotamus, if you put yourself between the hippopotamus and the water.”

She added: “So we were filming in the river and the hippos were right above. I don’t know if they show that in the film, I don’t remember, but I was aware of it!

Streep said Redford was concerned about their safety and “wasn’t good” at washing her hair at first until her hairstylist, Roy Hellund, stepped in to protest.

“Redford took the lesson, and he really got into it, and he was great,” she said. “By the fifth take, I was so in love!”

She added: “I didn’t want this day to end, even despite the hippos. »

The romantic drama starred Streep as a Danish baroness who begins a passionate affair with a big-game hunter in Kenya. It won seven Academy Awards in 1986, including Best Picture and Best Director for Sydney Pollack.

The actress at Cannes will receive an honorary Palme d’Or for her prolific film career.

Outside Africa is now streaming on Netflix.