Leonardo DiCaprio Didn’t Want to See Meryl Streep’s Butt
He respects her too much
In the final moments of Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, you see Meryl Streep’s butt. I won’t say the context in which you see the rump, because it’s a spoiler but also because the movie sucks and I don’t want to spend more time talking about it than I already have. Just know that at one point, you see Streep’s character’s kaboose — and apparently it’s not actually hers.
McKay told The Guardian that the film’s star Leonardo DiCaprio was upset at even the idea of Streep showing off that ass. “He didn’t like seeing her with the lower back tattoo, walking for a second naked. He said something to me like: ‘Do you really need to show that,’” the writer/director/Gawker enemy said. They eventually went with a body double for the shot.
DiCaprio was offended at the idea of seeing Streep’s seat, apparently because he respects her too much. “Leo just views Meryl as film royalty … although maybe royalty is not a compliment … but as such a special figure in the history of film,” McKay said. Leave it to McKay to throw in a heavy-handed anti-royalist comment in an otherwise normal conversation; even when I agree with him, he’s still annoying.
I do believe that DiCaprio told McKay that he didn’t want to demean Streep (who McKay noted “didn’t even bring it up”) by having her show her bare derrière on screen. What I also believe is that he thinks an aging woman’s body is icky, and didn’t want to see a butt that has existed for more than 25 years. “Why does it look like that,” he probably said upon seeing a tush with a little cellulite at the movie’s premiere.
What I also believe is that Streep probably would have just shown cheek if asked. Not only because McKay said that she was fine with it, but because she’s shown off her butt in the past. Thanks to a gross little website called AZNude, I was reminded that we’ve seen her keister in Bridges of Madison County and The House of the Devil. She even showed off a boob in Silkwood. If she had any objection, it should have been because Don’t Look Up isn’t as good as any of those films. Regardless, I’m glad she’s saving her butt for a movie that deserves it. I hope to see her shaking that thing in Mamma Mia 3.
