Meryl Streep is a Queen. That’s just science fact. The immensely talented actress appears next as a rock star (oh, yes) in Ricki and the Flash, from writer Diablo Cody and director Jonathan Demme. The titular role of Ricki requires singing and guitar-playing, and you know Queen Meryl would not be content letting a stand-in handle all the work. In addition to recording 12 cover songs for the new film, Streep was so committed to the project that she spent six months honing her guitar skills and wound up literally bleeding for her art. That’s just how Meryl Streep rolls.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, director Jonathan Demme revealed that Streep covered songs from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Lady Gaga. Streep performed in front of a live audience and no playback was used to enhance her vocals — Streep is a very talented singer, as many of you are probably already aware. The actress covered Petty’s “American Girl” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” which means a group of lucky people on this planet got to watch Streep perform like a rock goddess and somehow managed to not hyperventilate to death.

Those songs will all be featured on the Ricki and the Flash soundtrack, on which Streep also plays guitar — something she practiced rigorously for six months. Demme reveals that the actress was so committed to playing her instrument that she ended up hurting herself:

She goes, ‘Jonathan, look! Blood!’ Meryl had shred so fiercely, a little blood had spattered on her baby blue dress.

In the film, Streep plays Ricki, a rock star who abandoned her husband and three kids decades ago to pursue her dream. Years later, she returns to try to reconnect with the family she once left behind. Rick Springfield of “Jessie’s Girl” fame plays a bandmate of Ricki’s who’s in love with her. Also starring in the film are Sebastian Stan, Kevin Kline, and Streep’s real-life daughter Mamie Gummer.

Prepared to be wowed by the musical stylings of Meryl Streep when Ricki and the Flash hits theaters on August 7.

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