Top 10 Best Meryl Streep Stories Told by Other Celebrities
#10: Barack Obama
When Meryl Streep was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor, President Barack Obama spoke at the reception. His remarks drip with charm and wit, but it’s pretty standard stuff. After the speech, though, he starts going off the cuff. Toward the end of the reception, he talks about his personal connection to the artists being celebrated. When he gets to Streep, he mentions her role in 1981’s “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.” Namely, he tells of how he was one of the many who developed a crush on the actress after seeing her in that film. It’s a moment of levity that practically has her doubling over with laughter.
#9: Melissa McCarthy
Sitting down with Ellen DeGeneres, the Oscar nominated actress of “Bridesmaids” talked about her awards season go-around. McCarthy recalled meeting some of Hollywood’s brightest stars at the Golden Globes. She described her complete shock at Meryl Streep introducing herself. The fact that Streep actually felt like anyone in the room didn’t know who she was is hilarious enough, but McCarthy acts out her complete journey of emotions upon meeting her longtime idol. Her little girl excitement is clear, and she’s clearly being self-deprecating. But then again, that would be all of us if we met Meryl Streep.
#8: Ryan Gosling
This future star of “La La Land” scored his first Oscar nomination for 2006’s “Half Nelson.” Ryan Gosling took his sister and mother as his dates. Unfortunately, his mom’s beehive hairstyle just made her feel out of place and self-conscious. Looking to cheer her up, Gosling asked a nearby Meryl Streep to help her feel better. She did her job admirably as usual. Taking Gosling’s cue, Streep told his mother how jealous she was of her hairstyle, which basically made her night — and understandably so! It’s just another reminder of how awesome the actress is.
#7: Kathy Bates
If there’s anyone who knows how to deal with losing a major award, it’s Meryl Streep. As of 2025, she’s won three Oscars, but has been nominated for 21. Both numbers are impressive, but it also means she’s had to make that gracious “I just lost an Academy Award” face 18 times over the course of her career thus far. So, when she and Kathy Bates lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2003, Streep was quick to offer a solution. She whizzed past Bates and told her bluntly that they were going to hit up the bar together. The two drowned their sorrows over some shots.
#6: 50 Cent
In 2014, photos of a chance meetup at a Knicks-Lakers game hit the Internet. Meryl Streep and 50 Cent ended up sitting courtside together. Starstruck doesn’t even begin to cover his reaction. Talking to Rachael Ray later on, the rapper and producer tells the story of sitting by the screen legend at the sporting event. Next to someone like Meryl Streep, he says he felt like a regular person. But he wasn’t the only one who suddenly changed around the actress. 50 Cent said that Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant even seemed to be completely stunned in her presence. We can’t blame him!
#5: Emily Blunt
The British actress played the put-upon assistant to Streep’s iconic Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada.” According to Emily Blunt, though, her co-star was anything but beastly. For the record, that just makes her immense talent all the more amazingly annoying. But as she tells David Letterman, when the two worked together again on “Into the Woods,” Blunt actually saved Streep from a nasty fall. Seeing her co-star get caught in her character’s cape, she acted quickly and caught her. She was quick to point out that director Rob Marshall and fellow castmate James Corden were absolutely no help. She also managed to do this, by the way, while pregnant.
#4: Jennifer Lawrence & Jonah Hill
The 2021 ensemble film, “Don’t Look Up,” featured Streep in a pivotal role as the U.S. President. Stars Jennifer Lawrence and Jonah Hill had taken to calling her “the goat.” Now, most of us are aware that “goat,” in this case, stands for “greatest of all time.” As time went on, Lawrence and Hill realized Streep didn’t know about this particular acronym. In fact, she just thought they were calling her a goat, as in “the old goat.” Neither actor knew whether to be more horrified that she thought they were insulting her, or that she just kind of took it in stride while assuming they were referring to her as a farm animal.
#3: Cher
The multi-hyphenate pop icon and Meryl Streep are not only occasional co-stars, they’re also longtime friends. During the promotional tour for the “Mamma Mia” sequel, Cher told James Corden about a trip to the store that took a turn for the dramatic. One time, they ventured out in search of ice cream, and what they found was their true calling as vigilantes. Seeing a woman being attacked by a large man, Streep and Cher immediately fended the guy off and rescued her. The look on the woman’s face when she realized who had saved her must have been priceless.
#2: Viola Davis
It seems like everybody is a fan of Meryl Streep, no matter how old they are. Case in point, Viola Davis’ kid. In this talk show appearance, Davis tells Ellen DeGeneres about her daughter, Genesis, and her fandom of “Into the Woods.” In the film, Streep plays a witch who casts a spell on a number of fairy tale characters. Apparently, that spell didn’t stay on the screen, because Davis’ then-four year old daughter wanted to see the movie several times. When Streep wanted to pass along a message to her new supporter, Genesis’ adorable response was actually a quote from the story itself. She really is a fan.
#1: Tracey Ullman
The British actress-comedian was one of many lights to salute Meryl Streep at the presentation of her AFI Life Achievement Award. She tells a story about how the two were almost in a plane accident on the way back from shooting the 1985 drama “Plenty.” Terrifying as it sounds, Ullman’s retelling has the entire room full of Hollywood legends practically collapsing with laughter. She details the moment she realized that dying with Streep was going to make her little more than a footnote in every news report of the crash. Luckily, they both lived to tell the tale.
Did these moments make you love Meryl Streep even more? Let us know in the comments.
