Actress Meryl Streep stopped by CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday to help spread the fictitious narrative that Republicans are trying to make voting impossible or, at least, more difficult for married women.
At the end of their interview, Colbert opened up the floor for Streep to talk about whatever she wanted, “Is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to touch upon, having to do with the world of entertainment or movies or the world in general?”
Streep began her reply, “Oh, well. Yes. I hope that—the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are. In other words, to your voting registrar, this is what I understand.”
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
She misunderstands. If married women who have changed their names are already registered to vote with their new name, they are good to go. If not, they can update their records with their states just as they have always done.
Nevertheless, Streep continued fearmongering, “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. So everybody has to get—”
Amid booing from the audience, Streep concluded by turning her conspiracy theory into a get-out-the-vote campaign, “and this is such a pain in the neck because you have to go, but do it because otherwise you will be turned away, and I think that women need to be heard.”
It is ironic that Streep expressed her voting conspiracy theories on April Fools’ Day 2026 because it was around April Fools’ 2025 when the news broke that Netflix was recruiting her to play Aslan—C.S. Lewis’s Christ supposal character—in its Chronicles of Narnia adaptation. Hopefully, April Fools’ Day 2027 will spare the world from more Meryl Streep foolishness.
Here is a transcript for the April 1-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
4/2/2026
12:51 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to touch upon, having to do with the world of entertainment or movies or the world in general?
MERYL STREEP: Oh, well. Yes. I hope that—the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are. In other words, to your voting registrar, this is what I understand.
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. So everybody has to get—and this is such a pain in the neck because you have to go, but do it because otherwise you will be turned away, and I think that women need to be heard.
