Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building has finally premiered, kicking off another round of mystery with a two-episode premiere. The new season is already filled with major stars, as the new cast for Only Murders Season 3 includes Grey’s Anatomy alum Jesse Williams, Marvel star Paul Rudd, and the legendary Meryl Streep, among others. Streep hasn’t joined too many TV shows throughout her illustrious career, but she was clearly drawn to the Hulu dramedy. On that note, one of the series' EPs opened up about landing her as well as the sweet connection she has with the material.
Many were excited when it was announced that Meryl Streep would be starring in the third season. And after only two episodes, her character has made quite the impression. She portrays Loretta, an aspiring actress who fell in love with theater as a little girl after seeing a Broadway play. Unfortunately, for her, she found herself getting turned down for roles constantly. Luckily, Martin Short’s Oliver Putnam gave her her big break. Streep’s portrayal of Loretta has already been entertaining, and it sounds like the creative team for the show didn't think they could get the Oscar winner. Series co-creator and executive producer John Hoffman, explained toThe Playlist:
Yeah, she reached out to Steve and Marty, her friends, and she was very much looking for a moment of levity in her life. And it had such a fateful edge around all of it when this started happening because it was two weeks before that moment that Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal, and I were talking about a character for this third season, such as Loretta, in very big detail. And literally on that couch, two weeks before the call from Meryl to Steve and Marty came, I said to Dan and Jess, ‘The perfect person to play this, to play a down-in-her-luck’ actress who’s forgotten a big break would be Meryl Streep.' And we all laughed like, ‘Yeah, that would be really fun, but never going to happen.’ So two weeks later, she’s calling, and they said, ‘Well, that’s so crazy because we have this show, and we’re doing the show with this part that they’re developing.’ And then it was only about a month and a half later that I was on a Zoom with her walking her through the entire arc for the character.
It’s already hard to imagine anyone else playing Loretta, and you also can't help but make note of the irony in the casting. The Iron Lady star has one of the most decorated acting careers in history, and is now playing a struggling thespian. It's also funny to hear the producers had her in mind to play the role but didn’t think she’d be on board, only for her to reach out with interest. Though she acted on TV sparingly, with one of her biggest roles coming by way of Big Little Lies Season 2 in 2019, it's great that she decided to sign on for this series.
Not only does Meryl Streep play Loretta perfectly, but they also share something in common. As previously mentioned, Loretta saw her first Broadway play as a kidA, and that’s when she is bitten by the bug and makes it her mission to become an actor. As it so happens, Streep had a similar experience, as discussed by John Hoffman:
And there was, more importantly, a deeper connection to it than I would’ve ever predicted, which was I started to tell her the opening of our first episode for ‘No Strings,’ and this little 10-year-old girl from St. Louis at her first Broadway show gets smitten by the Broadway bug or the theater bug. And I said, ‘It was No Strings or a Richard Rogers musical.’ And she cut me off right at the beginning, and she said, ‘I saw that.’ And she said, ‘Diahann Carroll, my mother took me to it when I was about 10.’ I was like, ‘O.K!’ And she literally on the Zoom started to sing the song that our lovely Rosharra Francis is singing in the opening of Season Three. And I was like, ‘Meryl, you have to stop right now because I’m going to lose it, because I’m going to send you the script after we hang up this Zoom, and you’re going to see on page one that lyric you just sang is on page one.” And we were both like, ‘What the hell?’ So it had that kind of lovely, unpredictable sort of sweet fate around it.
If that isn’t a sign that the star was made for this role, then I don’t know what is. Some people don't believe in fate, but I'd like to think this particular role was meant for the actress. At the very least, she's more than proving that she was the right fit, and fans' viewing experiences are all the better for that.
Since Only Murders in the Building is only two episodes into its third season, I'm still intrigued as to how Loretta's arc will play out. And of course, there's the major mystery, which sees the main characters trying to figure out who Ben Glenroy’s killer is. Only time will tell how everything plays out on that front (and for Meryl Streep's character) and, if you're interested in tuning in, know that new episodes drop on Tuesdays as part of the 2023 TV schedule and can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
