Meryl Streep accused of wearing ‘blackface’ in Netflix film The Laundromat: 'This isn't going to age well'

Actor’s secret second role in the film has come under fire

Meryl Streep has been accused of wearing “blackface” in her new Netflix film The Laundromat.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film revolves around the discovery of the Panama Papers and a network of global corruption in 2015.

Streep plays a white American widow who investigates the murky financial arrangements of her late husband. But midway through the film – spoiler alert – the Oscar-winner takes on a second role, playing an office worker in a Panamanian law firm specialising in offshore financial services, who sports lightly bronzed skin, a false nose, padding on her hips and an exaggerated if non-specific Latin accent.

Further disguised by a thick black wig, Streep’s second role is a nod to the film’s occasional dips into the surreal, with characters throughout The Laundromat breaking the fourth wall, locations shape-shifting at the drop of a hat and Soderbergh himself referenced in the film’s dialogue.

But for those who have seen the film, Streep’s comedic Easter egg of a supporting turn has proved baffling, with some arguing that it is tantamount to “blackface”.

In Vanity Fair, film critic Richard Lawson described it as a “bizarre and rather galling unforced error, especially in an era of heightened consciousness about representation and appropriation,” adding that it suggests Soderbergh and his cast “can’t help themselves to a little non-PC in-crowd chuckle”.

On Twitter, film journalist Rafael Motamayor wrote that the role was “incredibly weird”, and also criticised the audience at the film’s post-screening Q&A session at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for failing to ask Soderbergh or Streep about their thought process behind the character.

“Great to see every single question at the Q&A be about how great Meryl Streep is as a person (she is), yet nothing on her playing a Latina character including a nose prosthetic,” he wrote.

For The Film Bite, film critic Awais Irfan criticised the film’s “unnecessary and bizarre choices”, adding as an example: “Meryl Streep does blackface.”

Others expressed their views on Twitter, with one user saying the character made them feel "uncomfortable"

Neither Streep nor Soderbergh have yet commented on the blackface accusations, with Streep instead this week dedicating her performance in the film to Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist who was killed while collecting information about the Panama Papers.

“The film is about the bravery of whistleblowers and how we are increasingly relying on these people and especially journalists,” Streep said at a TIFF press conference.