By Emily Heil / The Washington Post

Since we’re officially in the age of asking celebrities whether they would like to be president, here’s Meryl Streep trying to pin down Jimmy Kimmel on the question of the day! The politically outspoken actress was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday night to promote her new movie, “The Post,” and of course Topic A came up.

Unlike some Hollywood folks who have been coy about their POTUS potential, Kimmel was flat-out self-deprecating when Streep turned the tables and grilled him about his presidential aspirations.

“I think that would be a terrible thing for the country,” he said when Streep asked if he’d ever thought about it. “If I were to be the president, I would ruin things almost immediately.”

Aha, but then the late-night host, who has been a critic of the office’s current occupant, got in a dig. Maybe he’s not so unqualified after all: “But then you do look at what’s going on and you’re like, ‘Oh well, maybe I wouldn’t be so bad.’”

Then Kimmel stepped back into host mode and asked Streep about Oprah Winfrey’s speech at Sunday’s Golden Globes awards. “Oprah launched her presidential campaign, I think,” the actress said.

But why stop there? Streep had a few thoughts about a possible Hollywood takeover of the White House in 2020, noting that Golden Globes host Seth Meyers had maybe-joked about Tom Hanks serving as Oprah’s veep.

“He seemed ready to go,” Streep said of her “The Post” co-star. “That would be a pretty good ticket … You could just keep it in Hollywood, you know; you could have the Rock as the Joint Chief of Staff and Harrison Ford running Defense.”