Don't Look Up star Meryl Streep temporarily 'forgot how to act' after lockdown

How badly did the lockdown affect Meryl Streep? The triple Oscar-winner says that she temporarily forgot how to act while portraying the U.S. president at a political rally for writer-director Adam McKay's comedy Don't Look Up.

"I found it really hard," Streep reveals in the course of EW's Around the Table chat with the actress, McKay, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, and Tyler Perry. "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. [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."

Streep swiftly recovered her acting mojo, at least according to Hill, who plays the actress' son in the film and is full of praise for his costar's comedic chops.

"I had so much fun," says the Superbad and Wolf of Wall Street actor. "Once we were in that Oval Office it was so cool, because it was a bunch of people I either know really well and/or deeply respect. It was like, oh my god, we can joke around together. Meryl was so rad, not because of your stature in your art, but because of how fun and funny you were in the pocket of this character."

Don't Look Up is currently in theaters and will premiere on Netflix Dec. 24.

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