- Primary Subject: Meryl Streep’s surprise voice cameo in the film Project Hail Mary
- Key Update: The Oscar-winning actress had a secret voice role in Project Hail Mary.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: March 23, 2026
- Quick Answer: Meryl Streep voiced a potential computerized translator for the alien Rocky, a secret role secured by producer Amy Pascal.
To the surprise of many fans, Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep had a secret role in the new sci-fi film Project Hail Mary. So, who did she play?
The movie, based on Andy Weir's best-selling novel, was recently released in theaters worldwide and was a critical and audience success. It opened to a whopping $80 million at the domestic box office, one of the biggest ever for a non-IP/non-franchise movie. Aside from Ryan Gosling's performance, there is a lot of praise and adoration for the alien character Rocky.
Who Did Meryl Streep Play in Project Hail Mary?
Little did audiences know before watching the film that Meryl Streep had a secret role in Project Hail Mary. She had a brief voice role as one of the potential computerized voices of Rocky.
After making first contact, Dr. Ryland Grace tried to find a way to communicate properly with the alien character. He programmed a computer to translate Rocky's mysterious language into English and selected a computerized voice that would act as a translator.
Streep's voice came up as one of the potential options that Grace was choosing. While the moment was done as a joke, as it turns out, the actress herself did the voice performance, even if it was just a brief dialogue.
Co-director Chris Miller explained to EW, "When we were on set, we did a bunch of silly voices ourselves. We had people from the crew do voices just to make Ryan laugh and have the characters have something to react to."
"We tried to imagine voices that would be preloaded into a text-to-speech kind of translator," co-director Phil Lord added.
Miller said, "And then we [thought], wouldn't it be fun to get Meryl Streep? And Ryan just said, 'She can do anything,' and that was perfect."
Fortunately, producer Amy Pascal has worked with Streep in multiple projects, so she found a way to contact the actress and convince her to do a brief voice role in the film.
"And 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?'" Miller recalled.
What is Project Hail Mary About?
Project Hail Mary follows science teacher Ryland Grace, who wakes up on a spaceship light-years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction, but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
The cast includes Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, and Priya Kansara.
The film has a Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 95%. It was praised for being a "visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning" and "a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart."
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