Leonardo DiCaprio protested against this Meryl Streep scene in ‘Don’t Look Up’
(Credit: Netflix)

Films

Leonardo DiCaprio protested against this Meryl Streep scene in ‘Don’t Look Up’

Netflix has earned brilliant revenue throughout the year with its wide array of films and shows. Among various other notable projects, Adam McKay’s latest disaster comedy Don’t Look Up has generated quite the buzz. 

With a star-studded ensemble cast including the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Rob Morgan, Roon Pearlman, Mark Rylance, Ariana Grande, Jonah Hill and more, the disaster film infused with dark comedy is an allegorical climate change tale with a biting satirical tone. 

The premise documents a pervading cataclysmic doom where a huge asteroid is heading straight towards the Earth and might lead to the potential destruction of the planet. However, in this bizarre expose of the sociopolitical response to the doom, the event is commercialised and experts are pushed to the sidelines. 

Meryl Streep stars as Orlean, the President of the United States, who tries to figure out the ways in which her country can profit from this celestial doom. Her brilliant performance has made viewers parallel her demeanour with that of the former President, Donald Trump’s. 

Working with Meryl Streep was a dream come true for many of her co-stars, especially Jonah Hill, who went on to call her the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) leading to a hilarious mix-up. 

DiCaprio, however, was not very pleased with one of the scenes that starred this iconic actress and vehemently protested against it. DiCaprio portrays Dr Randall Mindy, an astronomy professor at Michigan State whose PhD student Kate Dibiasky chances upon the comet and the duo embark on an odyssey to warn the world against the same. 

The first mid-credits scene in the film takes place “22740 years later”. The ditzy and opportunist President Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, had escaped the planet along with her associates and the wealthy tech businessman Isherwell, played by Rylance, to venture towards a habitable planet. In her frenzied escape, Orlean forgets her beloved sociopathic son, Jason, behind on earth. 

After they reach the Utopian world that seems like a paradise and has higher oxygen levels than the earth, they venture out naked- not to mention Streep’s body double’s rear with a ghastly tattoo- when they encounter strange birdlike creatures. True to Isherwell’s predictions about Orlean being killed by a “Bronteroc”, the birdlike creature gobbles her up moments after she says, “My goodness, what is that beautiful creature!” This indicates the mass eradication of the survivors by hordes of Bronterocs on the planet. The rich could not, after all, escape their fatalistic ending!  

Viewers were admittedly shocked to see Streep appear butt naked in the scene. And reportedly, DiCaprio too had a major problem with that. When the 72-year-old star was supposed to do that scene, according to McKay, DiCaprio went up to him and said, “Do you really need to show that?” to which the director responded by saying, “It’s President Orlean; it’s not Meryl Streep.”

However, ever the professional, Streep was not bothered by the scene. “She didn’t even blink,” he said. “She didn’t even bring it up. She is fearless.”

Later it was revealed that a body double was used in place of the veteran actress. DiCaprio, however, kept fighting Meryl’s cause and even expressed his immense love and admiration for the actress by saying how the entire cast would be “on their toes when Meryl walked in, as we should be”.