There's never any substitute for talent and intelligence, as Meryl Streep has proved once again.

Speaking to Wall Street Journal columnist Tom King, Streep, 53 -- now the most-nominated actor in the history of Hollywood -- touched upon a number of topics, from audiences ("People my age have been turned off and have gotten out of the habit of going to the movies, which is a real shame") to the car she drives.

Invariably, the name of Katharine Hepburn had to come up. Streep's nomination this week for Best Supporting Actress for "Adaptation" is her 13th, which surpasses the previous record of 12 nominations for Hepburn, 95 (and now Jack Nicholson, 65, who this week received his 12th nomination, for "About Schmidt").

Asked if she sensed a possible backlash for her having been nominated so many times (she has won two Oscars, for "Sophie's Choice" in 1983 and "Kramer vs. Kramer" in 1980), Streep said: "No. I was just really flabbergasted that people would continue to want to look at my face on a screen.

"Our relationship with people we see in film is very personal. I know that from how I follow certain performers -- like Katharine Hepburn -- and I never, ever got sick of seeing her."

Streep added, "I just did have a sense of myself of not wanting to wear out my welcome."

And her car? She drives a fuel efficient Toyota Prius through the streets of New York. "If everybody that had two cars had a Prius (instead of an SUV)," she says, "we wouldn't be in Saudi Arabia."