Why Did Meryl Streep Do ‘Only Murders in the Building’? Inside Her Decision to Join the Show

It’s impossible to choose Meryl Streep’s greatest acting performance because she’s simply brilliant in everything she’s done so far, including Only Murders in the Building. The Oscar winner revealed the real reason why she wanted to join the Hulu series with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.

When Did Meryl Streep Join ‘Only Murders in the Building’?

Meryl joined the cast of season 3 of Only Murders in the Building in 2023. She signed on to portray the character Loretta Durkin, an actress cast in Oliver’s Broadway play who ends up forming a deep connection to him. She ended up winning the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal.

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Why Did Meryl Streep Do ‘Only Murders in the Building’?

Meryl was already a huge fan of Only Murders in the Building before officially joining the cast of the show. She ended up reaching out to Steve and Martin to see if there was a place for her on the series. Cocreator John Hoffman explained how the collaboration came to be.

“It’s crazy. I was with [EPs] Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal going through the opening scene for season three potentially being this actress walking onto a stage, auditioning for a part, and Oliver being thunderstruck by both the talent and the woman standing before him, and I said to Dan and Jess, ‘Well, the perfect person to play this part — you know who that is?’ They’re like, ‘Who?” And I was like, ‘Well, Meryl Streep.’ And they were like, ‘Good luck with that, John,’” he recalled during an August 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Then, literally two weeks later, I get a text from Steve and Marty saying, ‘Hey, Meryl Streep just reached out and said she’d like to talk about doing something together. Should we bring up the show?’ I said, ‘Yeah!’ And a week later, they called and said, ‘Hey, Meryl just said she’s in if you think we have something for her to do. Do we have anything good?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, f–k.’”

John then revealed what it was like to tell Meryl about the character of Loretta and what he had hoped to achieve in season 3.

“I pitched her the character over a very nervous-making Zoom. I said, ‘We open on your character, actually, in the very first scene, but you’re 10 and visiting New York from St. Louis with your mom, who’s bringing you to your first Broadway show, it’s called No Strings. And before I got any further, Meryl said, ‘I saw that.’ And I said, ‘What?!’ She said, ‘Yeah, I saw that with my mother … Diahann Carroll was in it. She sang this beautiful song,” he recalled. “And she started to sing ‘The Sweetest Sounds.’ I said, “OK, I don’t know what the hell is happening right now, but Meryl, you have to stop because my head is going to explode. Those lyrics you just sang are on page one of the script I’m going to send you after we hang up. And she said, ‘What?!’”

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Is Meryl Streep in Season 4 of ‘Only Murders in the Building’?

Meryl is in Only Murders in the Building season 4, and was featured in the trailer.

“Meryl is returning for next season because she had a tremendous time,” 20th Television President Karey Burke said during an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast.

If you remember at the end of season 3, Loretta reconnected with her son, Dickie Glenroy, and decided to move to Los Angeles to explore new acting opportunities. Season 4 of the show sees Oliver, Mabel and Charles head to L.A. as they get the opportunity to turn their podcast into a movie.