'You're too ugly to be on screen!'

Meryl hadn't even intended to become an actress on screen but decided to start auditioning after seeing Robert DeNiro in the film 'Taxi Driver'.

When she auditioned for the role of the female lead in 'King Kong' at the age of 26 but was told she was "not pretty enough" for the part.

Director Dino De Laurentiis said to his son in Italian, "This is so ugly. Why did you bring me this?"

He was unaware that Meryl understood Italian and replied: "I'm very sorry that I'm not as beautiful as I should be, but, you know – this is it. This is what you get."

Meryl eventually made her big screen debut opposite Jane Fonda in the 1977 film 'Julia' and earned her first Academy Award nomination for 'The Deer Hunter' the following year.