I know young love is typically reserved for those who are, for lack of a better term, young. However, sometimes love stories can transpire between older folks that feel like young love in the best way. On Only Murders in the Building, Martin Short’s Oliver and Meryl Streep’s Loretta experience just that. It turns out that one of their pivotal scenes from Season 3 actually made Streep cry, because she was so happy to be playing out a wonderful, joyful romance.
In Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building, one of the suspects was Loretta for a while, but more importantly, she was Oliver’s love interest after he cast her in his musical Death Rattle Dazzle. While speaking with Decider about OMITB Season 4, co-creator John Hoffman opened up about Streep and Short’s on and off-screen chemistry, and he detailed the scene that made the Devil Wears Prada actress so emotional, and you can’t tell me this isn’t the sweetest thing ever:
I remember one night we were shooting on the ferry in Episode 5 of Season 3. We shot until about two in the morning on the most gorgeous night in Manhattan. I got off to gangplank there and Meryl was waiting and she had tears in her eyes and she said, ‘I just had to wait here for you to get off the boat to say thank you.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ and she said, ‘I just got to play a scene I really thought that the likes of which I wouldn’t have a chance to do. To play romantic scenes at this age with this band in this way, it’s just the greatest thing ever.'
Fittingly, Season 3, Episode 5 is called “Ah, Love!” and it features Oliver and Loretta having quite the date night. It begins in the actress’s tiny apartment where they share an overly-cooked pork chop dinner that causes Short’s character to lose his tooth.
Eventually, the two end up on a ferry, Loretta offers Oliver a flask and a joint, and they share a lot of stories and laughs. While Short’s character was using the date to try and cross Loretta off Only Murders in the Building’s Season 3 suspect list, he also declared his feelings for her, saying:
I adore you Loretta ‘Lucky’ Durkin and everything about you, apart from that pork chop, I’ll never forgive you for that.
They both can't stop smiling after that, and Streep’s character teaches Short’s about the “tooth ferry” as they throw his lost tooth overboard. Obviously, it then ends with a kiss. It’s a totally unique, silly and lovely moment, and Streep is right, we don’t get to see love stories like this play out with older couples.
When you look at the list of the best rom-coms, most of the time the leads are young. So, as a viewer, it's always amazing to see older couples represented in these stories, and as the Oscar winner explained, it means a lot for her to play them out too. So, I totally get why she got choked up after filming the ferry scene.
Now, Meryl Streep and Martin Short are still playing lovebirds on screen as Loretta and Oliver navigate the struggles of a long-distance relationship in Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building (which just finished its run on the 2024 TV schedule).
To see how their love story has evolved since that ferry scene, and to witness the lovely moment that made Meryl Streep tear up, you can stream Only Murders in the Building with a Hulu subscription.
