The Perils of Meryl

There's something wrong with this picture: Meryl Streep is navigating a raft through Montana's seething Kootenai River, the spray drenching her gray sweatshirt, the 16-foot vessel lurching as she digs her oars in with a concentration that's no act. The noble cheekbones, the imperial nose, the translucent skin, it's all there. But her hands are callused and bloody, her hair stringy and sun-bleached, and strangest of all, as she careens through the rapids, this most aristocratic of actresses seems to be having the time of her life.

''Rafting is a fluid art,'' Streep says, intending no pun. ''You don't know what's going to happen. You can't fight it, you have to stay cool. It was thrilling to come out ... intact.''

Intact qualifies as a joyous word because her role as former white-water guide Gail in The River Wild had Streep in command of a rubber raft for most of the 15-week shoot — taking on Class V rapids (Class VI are considered unnavigable), dangling her craft at the edge of a waterfall, flying almost blind when the camera obscured her view, and performing some stunts up to 12 times to be sure director Curtis Hanson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) got the goods.

''I was scared all the time,'' says the 45-year-old two-time Oscar winner. ''Curtis loved showing that it was me doing things. Most of it that you see is me.''

Streep was said to be dangling her craft at the edge of a waterfall when she took the lead in The River Wild. It was as if someone had dared the master thespian with a gift for accents to make a tense action thriller that put the heroine's survival skills to the test. Yet she emerged from filming with more than her 5-foot-6-inch form intact: Suddenly Streep has her brilliant career back.

It's been a while. Best known for flawless dramatic performances in her early films Kramer vs. Kramer (her first Oscar win), Sophie's Choice (her second), The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Out of Africa, Streep has more recently taken her lumps as a comedic actor in She-Devil, Postcards From the Edge, and Death Becomes Her. For her virtuoso role in last April's The House of the Spirits, adapted from Isabel Allende's novel, she got to age several decades on camera; the film landed without a sound. But weeks later, as The River Wild hit Hollywood screening rooms, the buzz on Streep began to build. Universal changed its release from summer to fall, apparently not wanting to match Meryl's muscles with those of Arnold or Harrison Ford. Still, her stock seems to have risen on bets that The River Wild might score with the public. By August, Streep's new direction had brought her full circle: She had the lead-and a new accent to learn, Iowa by way of Italy-in the highly anticipated and deep-in-the-mainstream The Bridges of Madison County. She'll star opposite her director, Clint Eastwood. Her payday will be between $4 million and $5 million-and word is she'll also get a percentage of the gross.

Streep's tackling The River Wild — which pits Gail's family (David Strathairn plays her architect husband; Jurassic Park's Joe Mazzello is their son) against some dubious characters (John C. Reilly and a devilish Kevin Bacon) — didn't particularly surprise Robert Redford, her Out of Africa costar. ''She has a very refined face,'' he observes. ''But there's also a wild side to her that may have something to do with her doing the movie. People judge her by the roles she's played or the face she puts on for a magazine cover. You put two or three things together and assume the other 10. Actually she is quite tough.''

Her attitude toward her chosen task bears that out. ''Bodybuilders may do it just to see if they can, to take it to that limit, and that's what I wanted to do on this film,'' says Streep of her River adventure. ''I wanted to tax myself in that way, see how strong I could get, how scared I could get, and how much I could overcome it.''