Meryl Streep was convinced that Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Timothée Chalamet were constantly insulting her while filming 2021 Netflix movie Don’t Look Up. In the satirical disaster comedy movie, Streep played the president of the United States who failed to react to the news that a world-ending comet was going to strike Earth.
She starred opposite an array of celebrated actors including Mark Rylance, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, and Cate Blanchett, as well as working especially closely with DiCaprio and Lawrence. Because Don’t Look Up was filmed while the Covid-19 pandemic was impacting production on movies, Streep was required to stay in an isolation ‘bubble’ with her fellow performers on the movie meaning that they spent a lot of time together.
During that time, Meryl Streep believed that she was being continuously badly insulted by the rest of the cast, thinking that they had given her the nickname of a ‘goat’. Jennifer Lawrence described how the misunderstanding emerged while speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Lawrence said “We offhandedly called Meryl the goat. You know, like “the goat, go do that” or “the goat will go here” and we were doing a photoshoot and I said something like goat.. and Meryl said “that’s right, tell the old goat where to go,”
“And I said, “Meryl, you know that ‘goat’ means ‘greatest of all time’ right?” and she was like “Oh, no!” and we were like we haven’t just been calling you goat this whole time! She was like “Oh well, you know, just like an old goat.”
It’s a hugely entertaining misunderstanding, as well as a reflection of Steep’s character that she was able to believe she was being constantly insulted and just shrug it off.
Streep’s status as the goat (as in, greatest of all time) is well deserved. She’s widely recognised as being one of the best actors of all time, and has racked up a hugely impressive 21 Oscar nominations for her performances over the years. The actor shows no sign of slowing down either, and hopefully we have many more excellent performances from the goat still to come.
For more movie magic, check out our picks for the best movies of all time, as well as our guide to every major new movie releasing in 2024.