So, uh, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts are doing August, Osage County? Nathaniel Rogers makes an interesting, if not wholly persuasive, case against casting Meryl Streep as Violet: I think the real problem is physical. Perhaps it's just me, but I saw Estelle Parsons in the role on Broadway and I think her diminutive stature helped amplify her performance. That so much venom could come from such a small person was fascinating and compelling. A larger woman, to me, would look more like a bully and less like a force of destruction (though to be fair, Violet is a bully, as well as a drug-addicted, broken black hole of a woman).
But my real problem is with Roberts. I think she's often best in roles where she's playing clever rather than intellectual, and I think Barbara definitely is an intellectual. I have trouble seeing Roberts sell lines like the fabulous "Oh, 'forsook' you and the horse you rode in on" from the first act. Roberts doesn't often sell depth or introspection well, though I don't think the trainwreck that was Eat Pray Love was particularly her fault. And she also isn't particularly adept at the uglier sides of anger. She was fine in Closer, but to me, that movie really belonged to Natalie Portman. And her anger in movies like Erin Brockovich or even America's Sweethearts tends to be righteous rather than born out of deep dysfunction.
There just needs to be more of a commitment to ugliness all around here. I can see Helen Mirren as Violet, she's got that sting to her. But I don't know who I'd put on-screen as Barbara. Maybe Deirdre Lovejoy. She sure deserves better than junk like Outlaw.