Meryl Streep addresses voice cameo in Project Hail Mary

Meryl Streep has shared how her voice cameo in Project Hail Mary came about.

In the smash hit sci-fi film, Ryan Gosling plays an astronaut alone in space who makes contact with an intelligent alien lifeform that he nicknames Rocky.

Rocky does not speak human language, so Gosling's Dr. Grace programs a computer to translate Rocky's sounds into English words, and he tries different computerised voices to find the right one for Rocky.

The filmmaking team came up with the idea of Streep's voice being one of the program's preloaded options, and producer Amy Pascal reached out to the Oscar-winning actress to see if she'd like to contribute a voice cameo.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night to promote her movie, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Colbert pointed out to Streep that she was in the highest-grossing movie of the year so far, thanks to her one uncredited line.

Recalling how it came about, she said, "Amy Pascal is a friend, she produced lots of wonderful movies, including (2019's) Little Women, that I was on... I've known her for a long time. She's a producer of that (and) she asked if I would do it. We were working on another film in London and I said sure. (Adopts excited voice) 'Ryan Gosling's in it?! God!'"

However, she could not give her opinion on the film itself because she hadn't seen it yet.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last month, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller joked that they procrastinated in asking Streep for a cameo because they were nervous.

"You have never seen a group of filmmakers procrastinate longer," Lord admitted with a laugh. "But every time you rehearsed in the mirror, going, Meryl, would you by any chance want to play a rejected voice of an alien? Just trying to explain it to her...You know what? I'm going to ask her tomorrow."

After she said yes, they were thrilled by her dedication to the task. Miller added, "She was so fun and thoughtful and playful and did a million different versions: 'I'll do more. You want me to try this? Try that?'"

Project Hail Mary is in cinemas now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 will be released on 1 May.