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Meryl Streep in ‘Only Murders in the Building’.
Patrick Harbron/Hulu
Meryl Streep opens up about some of the fears she had before season three of Only murders in the buildingparticularly in regards to its big musical number.
Streep joined Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, showrunner John Hoffman and songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for a For Your Consideration event in the Paramount parking lot on Friday night, with a conversation moderated by her co-star Jane Lynch. The group is currently filming the fourth season of the series, which takes place primarily in Los Angeles, on the lot.
Streep told the crowd how she called Martin to ask to appear on the show, after having a “very fun” time working with him in 2009. It’s complicated.
“I’m sorry, can you believe Meryl Streep asked to be on this show? She could die,” Gomez exclaimed, as Streep responded, “Don’t everyone want to be on this show? They do it, because next season they all will be,” referencing the fact that several new stars, including Eugene Levy, Molly Shannon and Eva Longoria, will be joining the cast.
“They have to erect barriers to keep these actors out,” he continued. “He was a big fan of the show, but he also wanted to have some fun because the world is shit right now.” He added of the third season with Broadway music: “I really thought they should have made Selena sing.”
Streep also talked about her role on the show, playing an actress who finally gets her big break after decades of trying to get a job, and recalled receiving the demo of the lullaby she sings on the show, which was originally recorded by Sara Bareilles.
“It was beautiful and I thought, ‘Wow, oh man, I hope I get to do this.’ And I was really nervous and we went to record it (you record it first so you can pretend to sing it that day so you can do it over and over again and all the takes match), but I was really nervous in the recording session. she said. Pasek and Paul joked that she kicked them out of the studio, but Streep explained that it was because there were about 20 spectators watching her sing.
“I just said, ‘I can’t do it,’ and at first I was very bad, very bad, and I thought, ‘It’s because you’re nervous,'” he added. “People have an idea of what they’re going to hear and if it’s not that, it’s going to break down and they’re going to think, ‘How can we get rid of it?’ She called and asked to be on this and it’s so bad.’” But, she joked, “After they left the room, I felt great.”
The cast spent much of the 30-minute talk gushing about Streep, with Short calling working with the star “one of the biggest thrills of my life.” The first day of filming, which was weird because I’m not new, I was driving to work and I thought, “I’m nervous today.” I’m working with Meryl Streep.’”
He also spent a lot of time mocking Streep, joking with her: “With this show, I think you have an agent, right?” and deadpan that when she sang, “the whole cast was crying. I mean, I asked for glycerin but a lot of them were excited.”
Gomez jokingly responded: “Welcome to my life every day, Meryl.”