Even legendary actors forget their lines sometimes… but that doesn’t mean Viola Davis was eager to call it out when it happened to Meryl Streep in “Doubt.”
Stopping by the latest episode of “Good Hang with Amy Poehler,” Davis recalled being very reluctant to tell Streep about her goof at the time. The memory came as Poehler lamented about how hard she finds it to memorize lines for a project, while Davis noted that she finds it easy. The hard part for her, however, is when another actor forgets their lines, as Streep did in their 2008 film.
“She had a line, I had a line, whatever, and then nothing,” Davis recalled. “I’m looking in her face, nothing. She’s saying nothing, I’m saying nothing, obviously someone dropped the line.”
Upon realizing that it was Streep who was blanking, rather than herself, Davis felt immense relief. Even Poehler jokingly added, “Oh, thank god.”
“Meryl friggin’ Streep dropped the line!” Davis agreed.
According to the “How to Get Away With Murder” actress, they did the scene three more times, and each time, Streep missed her line, but didn’t realize it.
“And in my brain I was like, ‘Say the f–king line!’ But, I can’t tell Meryl Streep ‘You forgot the line, Meryl. You keep forgetting the line,’” Davis said. “Finally, we did it, and she was like, ‘Why does something feel off?’ And I said, ‘Because you you keep forgetting the line! You forgot the line, Meryl!’”
According to Davis, Streep was good-spirited about it and simply wondered why Davis didn’t let her know earlier. You can watch the latest bit from “Good Hang” in the video above.
