 After roles in the comedy @-@ drama Postcards from the Edge ( 1990 ) and the comedy @-@ fantasy Defending Your Life ( 1991 ) , Streep starred with Goldie Hawn in farcical black comedy , Death Becomes Her ( 1992 ) , with Bruce Willis as their co @-@ star . Streep persuaded writer David Koepp to rewrite several of the scenes , particularly the one in which her character has an affair with a younger man , which she believed was " unrealistically male " in its conception . The seven @-@ month shoot was the longest of Streep 's career , during which she got into character by " thinking about being slightly pissed off all of the time " . Due to Streep 's allergies to numerous cosmetics , special prosthetics had to be designed to age her by ten years to look 54 , although Streep believed that they made her look nearer 70 . Longworth considers Death Becomes Her to have been " the most physical performance Streep had yet committed to screen , all broad weeping , smirking , and eye @-@ rolling " . Although it was a commercial success , earning $ 15 @.@ 1 million in just five days , Streep 's contribution to comedy was generally not taken well by critics . Time 's Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep 's " wicked @-@ witch routine " but dismissed the film as " She @-@ Devil with a make @-@ over " and one which " hates women " . 
