Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s biting new black comedy for Netflix, manages to deliver a parody in a world that is now beyond satire and Meryl Streep’s clever casting as a megalomaniac incompetent leader really seals the deal˳
Streep plays a female U˳S˳ president in the disaster film which progressives may cheer at first until her character is revealed—a slogan cap-wearing, self-aggrandizing, power-hungry, conservative˳
And we already know that the Academy-award winning actress is a dab hand at playing political figures with her infamous portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 drama, The Iron Lady˳
The president played by Streep, President Janie Orlean, is described by McKay as “70 percent celebrity, 30 percent savvy politician, someone utterly craven and without shame˳”
While Donald Trump is never mentioned in the movie or by the actors or creators, his presence is felt and it’s bluntly clear where they got their inspiration˳
President Orlean is far more concerned with primary elections than an extinction-level comet hurtling towards Earth in a metaphor for climate change that slaps viewers straight in the face˳
Streep said she found inspiration from the role from various different places and cited “preposterous people˳”
“There was so many places to take things from, because there’s so many preposterous people who’ve put themselves in public places recently, and shamelessly so,” Streep told reporters at a press conference on Monday night˳
It was kind of fun to put together this character that was in just pure id, just what her appetite wanted,” Streep said of president Orlean˳ “And about amassing power, money, more power, and more money, and nice hair and nails, you know?”
The Oscar winner elaborated: “That’s, unfortunately, that’s the cost of what being a public servant is now, that only the most… I mean, really, you really have to make a big sacrifice˳ Your family makes a sacrifice, and you have to be willing to do that˳ And it’s amazing that we get good people ever to do it˳ And [SIGH] we need them˳ We need them right now more than ever˳”
Later in the press conference, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Kate Dibiasky, the Astronomy grad student who discovers the comment said she “really liked Meryl’s incompetence as a president” in the movie˳
Streep and Lawrence star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Don’t Look Up, and hep plays Dr˳ Randall Mindy, the head of the astronomy department that makes the discovery˳
“You know, Adam created this film, which was about the climate crisis, but he created a sense of urgency with it by making it about a comet that’s gonna hit Earth within six months’ time and how science has become politicized with ‘alternative facts,'” he said˳
Don’t Look Up opens in theaters on December 10 and starts streaming on Netflix on December 24˳
