First Look At Meryl Streep In Steven Soderbergh‘s ‘Let Them All Talk ‘

Meryl Streep is back in a new film for HBO Max.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (who previously directed the three-time Oscar winner in Netflix’s “The Laundromat”), “Let Them All Talk” features Streep as a famous author with a serious case of writer’s block.

With her publisher pushing for her long-awaited literary return, she tries to kickstart her creativity by taking a cruise with two old friends (Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest) who had all lost touch with each other, in order to try to heal old wounds.

Along for the ride is the author’s nephew (Lucas Hedges) and her literary agent (Gemma Chan), who wind up becoming involved in the midst of all the drama amidst the three women.

“Let Them All Talk” is based on a short story by author Deborah Eisenberg, and was shot quickly, in just two weeks, with the dialogue mostly improvised.

The cast spoke with Entertainment Weekly earlier this year, with Bergen describing the process as “guerilla filmmaking.”

“I told [Soderbergh] he was gonna ruin everything for every director, and every production designer, and everything else, because he made the movie for 25 cents — I know that’s what I was paid. Then it was made in two weeks, and it was a free ride on the boat,” joked Streep, adding, “but now every director is gonna say, ‘Well, Soderbergh did it in two weeks, and [with] no money.'”

“And no equipment,” added Wiest. “The only equipment was sound equipment. Steven held the camera in a wheelchair and just rolled along. None of the lights, and the trucks, all that stuff that goes into making movies, there’s none of it. There was Steven and this new camera.”

“And no script!” Wiest pointed out.

Streep clarified: “I mean, they would give us the outlines of a situation, and then we knew where we had to end up. But they didn’t tell us how to get there.”

Added Bergen: “They gave us the scenes and the synopses of the scenes. And then we filled them in, if we could.”

“Let Them All Talk” debuts on Dec. 10.