Juliet Taylor takes no credit for Meryl Streep.

In her more than 40 years as the top casting director behind so many classics, “Annie Hall,” “Heartburn” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” to name a few, she has technically gave Streep her first film role. She gave many stars their big breaks. But Streep, she said, was always going to happen — the young stage actor was the talk of the town in New York as soon as she stepped on stage. Taylor was simply the lucky one who happened to be casting for “Julia”, which did not conflict with a play.

Modesty is not antithetical to being a great casting director, however, a profession of observation, negotiation and nuance that operates largely out of the public eye. That’s why Taylor is a little nervous about Sunday, when she’ll be introduced an honorary Oscar at the film academy Annual Governors’ Awards in a room full of Hollywood bigwigs.

The recognition is long overdue for Taylor and her colleagues. Earlier this year, the motion picture academy announced it would add a new competitive Oscar for casting directors starting with movies released in 2025.

“There are so many people who don’t know about casting,” Taylor said. “One thing is that we negotiate all the contracts and project a film within a budget.”

Casting wasn’t always the art it is today. In the studio system, it was more of a cattle call, organizational work rather than creative. But Taylor began her career in 1968 at a time of change, mentored by one of the pioneers behind the movement: Marion Dougherty, who scoured Broadway plays for talent and turned casting into a more selective and humane process. It was also a profession led by a lot of women. Dougherty used to joke that it was because they weren’t getting paid much.

The first film Taylor directed was The Exorcist, a baptism by fire in many ways. Principal William Friedkin he hadn’t gotten along with Dougherty in “The Night They Raid Minsky’s” and called the office with a strange request.

“He said, ‘I heard you have a very good assistant. Would you let her distribute my film?” Taylor said. “I don’t know if he did it as something that wasn’t nice to do. That was terrifying for me. I was scared to death the whole time.”

But he also found his voice in film, discovering Linda Blair and casting Jason Miller, a playwright he had a good feeling about.

“He had such a great face and was such an interesting guy to torment,” she said. “I thought, ‘Let’s see if he comes in and cries.’ He did and got the part. It was exciting. This is a casting director’s dream.”

As a New Yorker, Taylor quickly established herself as the casting director of choice for the likes of Woody Allenfor which he distributed over 40 films, Mike NicholsNora Ephron and Alan Parker. Among his more than 100 credits, he made both Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Schindler’s List for Steven Spielberg“Taxi Driver” for Martin Scorsese, “Big” for Penny Marshall and “Terms of Endearment” for James L Brooks.

“So many of them turned out so well because I worked for such wonderful directors,” she said. “And I don’t want to sound like I’m being falsely modest, but I feel like so many of these people were so talented that you couldn’t miss it.”

Some of her proudest moments were finding real people to fill out movies, like the lounge singer in “Broadway Danny Rose.” There are also the actors she did not give up.

“I used to shoot the poor Jeff Daniels for everything,” she said. “Back then, too, there were two different communities of actors and there was very little mixing. Actors from New York came to New York to be in the theater. If they had a movie, it was exciting, but they didn’t come in thinking they were going to be stars.”

For the most part, she and her longest-serving filmmaking partners, Allen and Nichols, managed to operate independently.

“Woody made his films on a very tight budget with the understanding that he would not be interfered with,” she said. “Mike Nichols was so admired that people didn’t bother with him much at first. But as his films got more expensive, that’s when you started to see a little more interference.”

When “Working Girl” came out, for example, the studio had ideas about the need for bigger stars. She and Nichols wanted Alec Baldwin as the male lead, but he was too unknown for the studio and Harrison Ford was called.

Taylor retired a few years ago and has no regrets. She will still talk to some of her old director friends about projects here and there. But mostly he enjoys going to the theater. And she is delighted that her profession is being celebrated.

“There were so many people who went before us who were really deserving,” she said. “It’s very emotional for me and the whole community. It’s been too long.”