Meryl Streep forgot how to act while making this disaster movie. With decades of experience (and plenty of Oscar nominations and wins to show for it) Meryl Streep is an actor who knows her way around a movie set.
She’s firmly cemented herself as one of the greatest actors of all time, and lights up any feature she’s in whether it’s musical movie Mamma Mia; drama movies like Little Women or Sophie’s Choice; or comedy movies like The Devil Wears Prada. Recently, she’s even turned her hand to disaster movies, and it was in 2021’s Don’t Look Up that she forgot how to act.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about the satirical comedy movie, which sees an enormous comet heading towards Earth and the subsequent attempts to stop its impending impact, Streep spoke about how the Covid-19 pandemic at the time affected her performance.
She said: “I found [lockdown] really hard. I didn’t feel funny in the lockdown. When I would come in to shoot my stuff, [I’d] get out of the car and hadn’t spoken to anybody in three weeks.”
Steep continued, “[I’d] walk into the stadium in Worcester, put on the wig and the nails and the suit, and make a speech to all these people. I just lost it. I forgot how to act, I forgot what I was about. It sort of dismantles your humanity, to be isolated like that. But thank god for Jonah, because he kept us laughing.”
We all knew Jonah Hill was funny (he’s been in more than enough comedy movies to prove it) but it seems that we have him to thank for keeping Meryl Streep happy enough to remember how to act. In Don’t Look Up, Streep stars as the US president, with Hill being her son and adviser.
She gives the best performance in the hit Netflix movie, which is packed full of a hugely talented cast including Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, and Mark Rylance. The movie is still on the streaming service, where you can check it out if you’re feeling in the mood for calamity.
For more movie magic, check out our picks for the best movies of all time, or keep up to date with every major new movie in 2023. Or, if you’re after the classics then take a look at our choices for the best Steven Spielberg movies.