Meryl Streep Says She 'Forgot How to Act' Filming 'Don't Look Up' During Lockdown: 'I Just Lost It'

The legendary Meryl Streep says she "forgot how to act" during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In Entertainment Weekly's "Around the Table" chat, featuring Don't Look Up stars Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, director Adam McKay and Streep, the 72-year-old actress revealed she found it challenging getting into character after the pandemic forced everyone into a lockdown.

"I found it really hard," Streep admitted. "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," the three-time Oscar winner added. "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."

Her costar and on-screen son Hill claimed otherwise, applauding Streep's performance as President Janie Orlean in the Netflix comedic-disaster film, calling it "rad."

"I had so much fun," the 21 Jump Street actor, 38, told the outlet. "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."

He added, "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."

During a virtual interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in December 2020, Streep repeated her sentiment of being "so bad" when the film first started shooting.

"We had our first scene on Friday and I was so bad," The Devil Wears Prada alum said at the time, while she shook her head. "I've been in this quarantine because they have to be very careful and I'm totally alone."

"My first scene was entering a stadium full of 20,000 people as the president, my big face on the jumbotron in front of me," she continued. "And I completely lost it, I couldn't remember anything."

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That scene uneased Streep as she described that it was "not at all" normal.

"First of all, there weren't 20,000 people obviously," she recalled. "They'll duplicate them [in editing]. There were extras all around the stadium. Lonely people separated by 20 feet of air, wearing masks and visors that are clear."

While the extras were meant to drive the moment and cheer for her character, she said the masks created a muffling effect.

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"The whole thing is so eerie and odd and disconcerting," she said of filming during a pandemic.

Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet and Ariana Grande round out the star-studded cast of the McKay-helmed film.

Don't Look Up is currently in select theaters and available for streaming on Netflix on Dec. 24.