#Sterling K. Brown’s Dream of Meeting Meryl Streep Came True at Academy Museum Gala: “Oh My God”

During an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2022, Sterling K. Brown relayed an anecdote to Jimmy Fallon about one of the three times he’d found himself in the presence of none other than Meryl Streep.

“She’s just talking, being regular old Streep, and I’m like, ‘No, I can’t, I don’t know.’ I couldn’t talk. I just lurked. I was weird. I was a creeper,” admitted Brown.

When The Hollywood Reporter came face to face with the actor on Dec. 5 at the premiere of his latest film, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, he had a new story to tell. Brown was fresh from the Academy Museum’s annual gala where he’d met his icon. “Fucking fantastic,” he said of the night. “To be in the presence of one of your heroes, oftentimes you’re disappointed, but she exceeded expectations. She told me she was a fan which almost made me pee on myself. I was like, ‘You don’t know who I am!’ And she said, ‘Of course I do.’ Then, she touched me and held my hand, and I was like, ‘Oh my God — Meryl actually knows who I am.’”

He also loved being in the room where it happened on a night that saw honors go to Streep, Oprah Winfrey and Michael B. Jordan. “Meryl gave an incredible speech, man, and had everybody eating out of the palm of her hand. It’s like 20 minutes long, but she’s Meryl. It was really cool. Sometimes, in this industry, you feel like you have to put on a little show and dance for everybody, but when you get a chance to be amongst your peers and authentically celebrate and root for one another, it’s such a good night.”

Brown seemed equally stoked about his role in Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film which has already snagged Brown a Spirit Award nomination for outstanding supporting performance. “It’s kind of fun to be a hot mess,” he said of playing the brother of Jeffrey Wright’s character, a seemingly out-of-control plastic surgeon who has recently come out of the closet. “I’m normally the guy that everybody expects to hold things together while they deal with the person who is being a hot mess. It’s nice to be the hot mess that has to be dealt with. But it’s also sort of an interesting thing because [my character] is funny, and the funny comes out of a place of pain because he just doesn’t want to be told what to do anymore after having to sort of self-impose closet himself. When it’s all said and done, Clilff will find his way back to a place of calm. But you kind of have to go through that when you have such a major upheaval in life. Things will be messy until they’re not.”

American Fiction hits theaters via Orion/MGM on Dec. 15.