U.S. actor Meryl Streep addresses the audience at An Evening With Meryl Streep at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. (David Donnelly/CBC)

Meryl Streep reflected on the craft of acting and the culture of celebrity Wednesday night in Toronto during a question-and-answer session at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The night of star power featuring the American actor was held in honour of the exhibit Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008, which highlights some of the best photographs taken at the magazine.

'Occasionally, you just surprise yourself, you don't know what's going to bubble up, you don't know what acting's going to throw at you.'—Meryl Streep

Streep, wearing her hair swept back in a ponytail and a black and white scarf, was interviewed by Globe and Mail columnist Johanna Schneller.

A 15-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner, Streep told the sellout audience of 700 she thinks of her success as a bit of luck.

Streep first came to wide attention with the 1978 film The Deer Hunter and gave her first Oscar-winning performance the following year in Kramer vs. Kramer.

She recalled everything coming at the same time in that period of her life.

"I was fixed on the theatre, I was doing the Taming of the Shrew in Central Park at the same time, and I was doing reshoots of Kramer vs. Kramer, and Woody Allen's [Manhattan ] — all in the same four weeks in August," Streep said.

Loves unusual roles

Streep said she was drawn throughout her career to unusual roles.

"I have looked at and loved and been drawn to women who are disagreeable on some level — tricky, weird, stupid, too smart for their own good, mean, weak. I like, I like the frailty. It's because it feels real, feels like life to me," she said.

She is known for her nuanced performances, but says she's often surprised by what she sees on the screen.

"Occasionally, you just surprise yourself, you don't know what's going to bubble up, you don't know what acting's going to throw at you. It's sort of the great zen thing about acting. It only exists in that moment, and then they capture it on film and it's thrown out there."

It feels like an accomplishment to touch people on some level, she added.

"People get to feel along with you and if you're lucky, they feel like you and that is the great miracle of empathy, and it's sort of a thing that human beings have that they don't use enough of," Streep said.

"We crave it, it's why we go to the movies, even unpleasant movies because we want to feel that somebody knows how we feel."

Doesn't mix family with fame

Streep said she always strived to keep her marriage, to sculptor Don Gummer, and family life private.

"I don't really love being on magazine covers and having the journalists saying, 'Now, well, tell us about Don.' Don doesn't want me to talk about him in a ladies magazine, you know. He's a serious artist who has a life that doesn't deserve to be reduced to a caption," Streep said.

"And the same with my children. I just have never been comfortable using them as little props to make me interesting or darling or whatever I'm supposed to be."

The proceeds from the event are being donated to one of Streep's favourite charities, Safe Hands for Mothers, which works to reduce the high number of African woman who die while giving birth.