Leonardo DiCaprio Stopped Meryl Streep’s Nude Scene in ‘Don’t Look Up’

The new Netflix movie Don’t Look Up is packed to the brim with stars, including Meryl Streep, who plays a president surprisingly not all that worried about a comet coming to destroy Earth. Her character also has a nude scene, which Leonardo DiCaprio “had a problem” with, according to director Adam McKay. The movie, which will finally hit Netflix on Dec. 24 after starting a limited theatrical run, stars DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers who have to convince everyone that something has to be done about a comet coming towards earth.

McKay, who also directed Vice and The Big Short, told The Guardian Streep is “fearless” and was supportive of her character President Orlean’s nude scene. Even though a body double was used, DiCaprio wasn’t thrilled. He sees Streep as “film royalty … although maybe royalty is not a compliment … but as such a special figure in the history of film,” McKay said.

DiCaprio “didn’t like seeing her with the lower back tattoo, walking for a second naked,” McKay recalled. “He said something to me like, ‘Do you really need to show that?’ And I was like: ‘It’s President Orlean; it’s not Meryl Streep.’ But she didn’t even blink. She didn’t even bring it up.”

Of course, DiCaprio was hardly the only person who respected the three-time Oscar-winner Streep. Jonah Hill, who plays President Orlean’s son and Chief of Staff, told Today last week that he always referred to Streep as the “GOAT” or “the boss” on set. Streep admitted she didn’t know what Hill meant by “GOAT.”

“I thought, ‘Why is he calling me a GOAT?’ And I sort of thought, ‘Well, you kind of look like a goat,’” Streep said. “Not true,” Hill added. “I didn’t know what that meant,” Streep said. “I’m not up on things.”

Eventually, Lawrence told Streep that “GOAT” was a term of endearment, not an insult. “Meryl was saying, ‘Oh, I think he keeps calling me a goat,’ and then Jen Lawrence was like, ‘No, it stands for greatest of all time.’ It’s a massive compliment and not a grotesque diss that I would never say anyway,” Hill recalled. “I just thought it was, I don’t know, a cute little thing,” Streep added.

Don’t Look Up began a limited theatrical release on Friday before it hits Netflix on Christmas Eve. Although the movie has received mixed reviews from critics, it landed on the National Board of Review and American Film Institute’s lists of the best movies of 2021. It was also nominated for Best Picture at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.