Meryl Streep was a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, and the host asked her if there was anything she wished he had asked her about in “the world of entertainment or movies, or the world in general.”
The Only Murders in the Building star was a little pensive at first, but she had one topic she really wanted to share. “Yes,” Meryl told Stephen,” I hope that the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women who have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are.”
“This is what I understand,” Streep continued, “Otherwise, when you get to the voting booth in November, you might be disqualified because your name on your birth certificate doesn’t match your name on the voting rolls. Everybody has to get…”
At that point, the audience loudly booed, giving her a brief pause as she gazed at them. It should be noted that Streep made no mention of Donald Trump, MAGA, or other right-wing terms. However, her message was clear, as she said, “This is such a pain in the neck because you have to go, but do it,” she urged women, adding, “because otherwise you’ll be turned away. And I think that women need to be heard, especially in this moment.”
As the US heads toward the midterm elections, Trump appears to be interfering with the voting process by introducing the SAVE America Act, which passed the House of Representatives in February. Basically, this would replace the self-attestation of US citizenship with documentation requirements.
Stephen Colbert concluded his interview with Meryl Streep by inviting her to talk about whatever she wants and she went for the voter suppression fearmongering, “the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to… pic.twitter.com/i9ax1nlBQu
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 2, 2026
Basically, any prospective voter with no valid US passport will be asked to show a birth certificate with a matching ID. This is something married people who changed their last name would not have, and reportedly, only around 50 percent of all American citizens hold a valid US passport.
In the meantime, the bill has stalled in the Senate and will require 60 votes to be able to move forward. However, revisions to get sufficient Senate Democratic support for the bill are ongoing. But so are the President’s threats to Republican lawmakers if they cannot get it passed.
Wednesday saw Trump, a regular mail-in voter himself, wage a war on “mail-in cheating.” In an effort to ensure that only those “verified” by his Department of Homeland Security can do so, Trump signed an executive order to limit mail-in ballots.
However, this isn’t the first time that Streep has used her celebrity platform to call Trump out. In June, 2016, she dressed up as Trump, wearing a wig and a fat suit to sing an altered version of a song from the musical Kiss Me Kate.
Oscar-winner Meryl Streep dresses up as Donald Trump to perform in play in NYC. https://t.co/nJtgVblIB2 pic.twitter.com/a5tPvR8KA9
— ABC News (@ABC) June 8, 2016
The following year, Streep slammed Trump while accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes. At the event, she told the audience that she was still “heartbroken” about the fact that Trump had won the Presidential election, especially after he mocked a disabled reporter while out and about campaigning.
“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back,” the Mamma Mia star said at the event. “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”
