Meryl Streep made her first appearance on Saturday Night Live during the show’s much-hyped 50th anniversary special, and months later, star Mikey Day still can’t believe he gave her acting advice during the rehearsals. The longtime writer and cast member worked extensively behind the scenes on the sketch she appeared in, and to his surprise, found himself telling her to go against her instincts and not prep so hard.
Day reflected on the wild life moment during a recent appearance on Hey Dude… The 90s Called. In case you’re out of the loop, that’s the podcast hosted by former Hey Dude stars Christine Taylor and David Lascher. Day is the co-writer on the alien abduction sketches, which Streep appeared in, and at SNL, if you write a sketch, you’re also the producer who works with the various departments and the actors to get everything ready for air.
During that process, he worked with Streep, who was apparently doing way more than most cast members and hosts. She was memorizing her lines and really getting into character, which led Day to tell her to consider just reading her lines off the cue cards. Here’s a portion of his quote…
At SNL, you talk to a lot of famous people and you’re used to it, but there’s like a handful of people that it’s still like, ‘What is happening?’ Meryl did amazing, and she got so into the character because there’s cue cards. She was like almost memorizing it just by habit. I’m like actively telling her to go against her instincts that have made her the best actress of all time. I’m like ‘You can read it… Just remember. The cards are right there.’
You can tell during Day’s entire recollection of the story that he’s really amused by what happened. She’s been nominated for 21 acting Oscars and is widely considered one of the all-time greats, but because she’d never been on SNL before, he was in this unnerving position to speak on this specific type of acting with more authority. Sometimes life is really weird.
You can watch the sketch in question below…
I might not be a Mikey Day level expert, but I’ve watched hundreds of SNL episodes with hundreds of different guests hosts and celebrities doing cameos, and the key is always just embracing whatever the material is. The best hosts are always the ones who just jump into the deep end of the pool and have fun, no matter what the material is. Streep clearly does that here. She manspreads just as wide as McKinnon. She goes with the outrageous material and clearly has a great time, which is all the audience ever wants to watch anyway.
As for Day, he’s built himself a really nice career. He’s been on SNL in some capacity for more than ten years and hosts the popular Netflix show Is It Cake? He also regularly picks up supporting roles in movies and does a lot of voice work. He also attracted a ton of attention recently for that hysterical Beavis and Butt-head sketch with Ryan Gosling, none of which is as cool as being able to say Meryl Streep went to you for acting advice.
SNL is currently on hiatus for the summer but will return again next season for its 51st run. There are still a lot of question marks about who will be back, but Day has made it clear he's planning to return. Fingers crossed he'll get to cross paths with some more acting legends.
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