 Longworth notes that the dramatic success of Out of Africa led to a backlash of critical opinion against Streep in the years that followed , especially as she was now demanding $ 4 million a picture . Unlike other stars at the time such as Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise , Streep " never seemed to play herself " , and certain critics felt her technical finesse led people to literally see her acting . Her next films did not appeal to a wide audience ; she co @-@ starred with Jack Nicholson in the dramas Heartburn ( 1986 ) and Ironweed ( 1987 ) , in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the television movie , Secret Service ( 1977 ) . In Evil Angels ( 1988 ) , she played Lindy Chamberlain , an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter despite claiming that the baby had been taken by a dingo . Filmed in Australia , Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role , a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival , and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress . Streep has said of perfecting the Australian accent in the film : " I had to study a little bit for Australian because it 's not dissimilar [ to American ] , so it 's like coming from Italian to Spanish . You get a little mixed up " . Vincent Canby of The New York Times referred it to her performance as " another stunning performance " , played with " the kind of virtuosity that seems to redefine the possibilities of screen acting " . 
