Saturday Night Live’s Mikey Day had to give acting tips to Meryl Streep for her appearance in the Close Encounters sketch before the NBC sketch comedy show’s 50th anniversary special on February 16.
Mikey Day gave acting advice to Meryl Streep ahead of the Saturday Night Live 50th special.
The 45-year-old actor-and-comedian had to inform the 76-year-old Hollywood legend to stop memorising her lines and rely on the cue cards in the long-running Close Encounter sketch, where she played former SNL cast member Kate McKinnon’s mom in the February 16 episode.
Speaking about the sketch – which featured Pedro Pascal, Woody Harrelson, Kate and Meryl talk about their experiences after another alien abduction – Mikey said in a recent episode of the Hey Dude… The 90s Called! podcast: “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 memorising 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.’
Mikey – who has written nine of the Close Encounter sketches – said it was “surreal” getting Meryl to do the sketch.
He added: “She has to be her mom so she can manspread, smoke a cigarette, and just kind of be nonplussed.
“It was surreal.”
Mikey recently shut down rumours that he will be leaving the NBC sketch comedy show.
He told Variety earlier this month: “I want to work there for as long as I can.
“I want to work there until it’s sad.”
The star – who joined SNL as a writer in 2013 before he became a cast member in 2016 – said he loves how he can try different things when he is writing sketches.
He said: “You can literally write whatever your brain can come up with.
“[The show is] “just very engineered, it feels like, to my ADD kind of brain.”
And being on the show is “addictive and perfect” for Mikey’s mind.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Mikey explained: “It’s the greatest job in the world, so addictive and perfect for my kind of creative ADD mind.
“I want to stay until I can only play grandfathers—or most Congressmen and senators.”
Mikey Day gave acting advice to Meryl Streep before Saturday Night Live 50 special
