Meryl Streep was so determined to make a movie about Margaret Thatcher, she slashed her fee and donated the rest to charity, according to a U.S. report.

The Hollywood veteran plays the former British prime minister in new film The Iron Lady, which tells the story of Thatcher's rise to power and her role as the U.K.'s first female leader.

It has now emerged that Streep didn't make any money from the movie - she cut her usual salary to $1 million (£625,000) to make sure the project could go ahead and then donated the fee to a good cause, according to New York Post gossip column Page Six.

The publication reports Street used the money to help fund America's National Women's History Museum.