Meryl Streep wanted to be a cheerleaderNew York, Aug 24 (AZINS) Veteran actress Meryl Streep says she wanted to be a cheerleader as a young girl.

Streep studied opera as a teenager with a teacher named Estelle Liebling.

“I'd travel from New Jersey to New York to study with her (Liebling). She was a great teacher and I was an idiot. I was a teenager. I thought opera was boring, and I wanted to be a cheerleader, so I quit and started smoking,” Streep said on the show “Reel Pieces”, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

However, singing has always been a big part of the 67-year-old's life.

“If you have children, when they're babies, they let you sing to them. But after that, no. My kids were always telling me to shut up, so I didn't sing at home,” she said.