It would make sense for Meryl Streep, the most decorated and arguably greatest living actor, to have an ego on-set. It’d be hard not to, right? But as it turns out, acting with humility is just another role that Streep nails on the head.
“Succession” star Kieran Culkin recently joined Marc Maron for an interview on his “WTF” podcast, and recalled a formative experience he had shooting a movie with Streep back when he was a teenager.
Meryl Streep’s No. 1 Piece of Stage Acting Advice “She was called to the set last, and she was like, ‘Oh, is everyone waiting for me?’ And in a very polite way she turned to the AD and said, ‘Could you please make sure that never happens again?,’ ” Culkin recalls. “ ‘I don’t want anybody waiting for me. Call me when you call everybody else.’ And it was really nice, and I remember I learned from that, like, OK cool, because she’s No. 1 on the call sheet, she’s the whole reason this movie’s happening, and she does not want special treatment. Don’t do that.”
Culkin also recalls observing similar behavior from Steve Martin, cementing further his understanding that, “Oh, you can be the guy in charge and be nice.”
Culkin, it should be said, is currently Emmy-nominated for his work on the HBO series. So it would appear that these lessons have stuck with him after all.
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