Margaret Thatcher Death: Meryl Streep Issues Statement on 'The Iron Lady' [Video]

Meryl Streep issued a statement after the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Oscar winning actress who portrayed Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" described her as a "figure of awe."

She stated, "Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics.

It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th century. Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others.

There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.

But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class-bound and gender-phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving. To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, levelled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas - wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now - without corruption - I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.

I was honoured to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends."

Streep was not the only celebrity to issue a statement. Actress Emma Watson stated "RIP Margaret Thatcher," while Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote via twitter "Margaret Thatcher was a visionary, a warrior and a once-in-a-lifetime leader who left the world better than she found it, We'll Miss Her."

Streep broke records when she received her 18^th Oscar nomination and won her third Academy Award for "The Iron Lady." She was last seen "Hope Springs" with Tommy Lee Jones and "It's Complicated" with Alec Baldwin. She also starred in "Doubt" and "Julie and Julia" with Amy Adams. The Actress will next be seen in "August: Osage County" alongside Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch and Chris Cooper.

Thatcher died at the age of 87 on April 8th.