Meryl Streep has revealed what character she is playing in Netflix's Don't Look Up. Director Adam McKay is behind the disaster satire (disastertire?) and will be directing another star-studded cast on par with his 2015 feature The Big Short. Back in October, we learned Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, and Matthew Perry would be in the cast.
Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett and Rob Morgan were already set to star in the Netflix movie about an asteroid approaching Earth.
This week, Streep was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Her interview with host Stephen Colbert kicked off with her mentioning she is currently commuting between her home in the Berkshires and Boston, where, after Colbert inquired, she revealed she is filming Don't Look Up. She went on to say the movie — which follows two scientists (Lawrence and DiCaprio) who discover an asteroid is about to hit Earth and try to warn everyone — is "about a global catastrophe but it's sort of funny, like Dr. Strangelove for 2020, about global warming—a metaphor for that."
Streep then revealed to Colbert that she will be playing the President of the United States in Don't Look Up (via The Hollywood Reporter). And, in a truly sublime casting twist, Hill will play the son of Streep as well as her character's chief of staff. The details around Streep and Hill's roles are some of the first we've learned about Don't Look Up, in addition to the news that Lawrence and DiCaprio will play the two scientists at the center of this story.
Later in their chat, Streep went on to share what it was like filming her Don't Look Up scenes in a COVID-19 safe environment. If you're curious about that, definitely watch the clip below. But for now, let's just all take a few moments to drink in the image of a world where Streep gets to be president.
Don't Look Up is currently filming and will premiere on Netflix soon. Watch Meryl Streep's interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show below. For more, find out what's coming to Netflix in December.
