'How The F**k?': Meryl Streep Names Actor So Good It Made Her Want To 'Retire'

Meryl Streep has opened up about a fellow actor’s recent performance that left her awe-struck.

The three-time Oscar winner — who is considered one of the best actors of her generation — admitted to People magazine in a piece published Friday that she had just seen Lady Bird star Laurie Metcalf perform on Broadway, and thought she was so good that Meryl was tempted to “just retire” from acting altogether.

“Basically I don’t know how to act,” the Devil Wears Prada star claimed. “When I see people do it, I think, ‘How did she do that?’.”

She continued: “I just saw Death Of A Salesman last night. I can’t believe Laurie Metcalf just blew my mind... all of [the cast did]! And I thought, ‘I better just retire, because I don’t know how the fuck she did that’. What an artist.”

Asked if she’d seen Laurie after the show, Meryl quipped that she had “kissed her feet”.

Meryl went on to explain that her personal approach to acting is more instinctual.

“So yeah, I don’t know how to do it,” she said of acting. “I go into everything, not knowing how people do it. And you sort of feel and listen and pick it up as you go along.

“But I don’t have a method — when you say ‘Oh, you went method,’ I don’t even know what ‘the method’ is. I never studied it.”

Meryl continued: “But you have a feeling you know what you need to do.”

Laurie – whose recent credits have included Netflix’s Monster and Big Mistakes – told Slant magazine in 2017 that when she’s in a play, she runs all her lines before every performance.

When Slant pointed out that this sounds like quite the exhausting undertaking, she responded: “It is! I hate doing it, but I feel good when it’s done. It’s like exercising.”

So, take notes, Meryl!