Meryl Streep has lauded Anne Hathaway for ensuring The Devil Wears Prada 2 represented realistic beauty standards.
To celebrate the film, which sees the pair reunite with Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci in the belated sequel, the cast were special guests at Dolce & Gabbana’s runway show at Milan Fashion Week while they were filming the movie last September.
Reflecting on the visit in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Streep admitted that she was struck by how “alarmingly thin the models were,” and that the experience had inspired Hathaway to approach their producers about the topic.
“I thought that all had been addressed years ago,” Streep said. “Annie clocked it too, and she made a beeline to the producers about it, securing promises that the models in the show that we were putting together for our film would not be so skeletal! She’s a stand-up girl.”
Released 20 years ago, the original 2006 film introduced fans to Streep’s formidable fashion editor Miranda Priestly, a role for which she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination. The movie, based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name, followed recent college graduate Andy Sachs (Hathaway) as she finds herself hired to be Miranda’s new assistant.
It earned $326 million at the global box office and received widespread critical acclaim.
In 2024, it was announced that a sequel was in the works, with director David Frankel returning at the helm.
Out in theaters May 1, The Devil Wears Prada 2 will pick up years later as Miranda clashes with Emily Charlton (Blunt), her former assistant turned rival executive, as they compete for limited advertising revenue due to the decline in print media.
Speaking to Porter magazine in September, Blunt joked that returning for The Devil Wears Prada 2 was a “rude awakening.”
Explaining that she prefers to wear casual, baggy clothing in her day-to-day life, the British star said: “I don’t love wearing heels, so getting back to The Devil Wears Prada has been a rude awakening for all of us.”
Blunt said that none of the cast expected the film to have the “meteoric life” it has since experienced, but they understand why it means so much to fans.
“Of course, I meet people who will quote the movie to me, but I’m not sure I've ever been hit with a bombardment of the realization of what the movie is to people coming back to the film set,” she added: “That’s what everyone says, every day: holy s***.”
