Meryl Streep Shares Insight Into Anna Wintour Friendship

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Meryl StreepandAnna Wintour’s friendship is, in fact, groundbreaking.

As everyone gets excited for the potential Devil Wears Prada 2, I’ve been thinking a lot about the real-life relationship between the actress and the legendary Vogue editor. It’s well known that the editor heavily inspired Meryl Streep’s iconic Miranda Priestly, and the actress recently shared some lovely insights into their connection. It’s fascinating to see how real life influences such memorable characters!

Although Anna and Meryl’s characters share some similarities, many fans might be surprised to learn that Anna wasn’t the model for Meryl’s portrayal of the editor-in-chief at the made-up Runway Magazine.

Meryl explained to Will Marfuggi of TopMob News that she didn’t want to simply copy the original character. She wanted to develop her own unique interpretation. ‘As I’ve gotten to know the character over time,’ she said, ‘I feel like my version of Miranda is complete. Any changes or developments she’s gone through are a result of my own choices.’

While the first movie was inspired by Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel, the Oscar-winning actress clarified that the sequel’s story is entirely fictional. She stated the script isn’t based on any real events or people, including Anna Wintour.

Meryl, age 76, thinks both Miranda and Anna are remarkable women. While Miranda is unique, Meryl finds Anna equally fascinating, noting that Anna has a talent unlike anyone else’s.

You know, people often describe her as funny and quick-witted, which she absolutely is. But I don’t think she’s trying to be an enigma. What strikes me is that she genuinely lives life on her own terms – she prioritizes her own values, her personal boundaries, and staying true to herself. And honestly, in a world that often pushes us to conform, that kind of authenticity feels really refreshing, even if it’s not always what’s ‘trendy’ right now.

She added that, in a culture where people constantly share every detail of their lives online – even the most private moments – she really appreciates Taylor Swift’s quiet nature and refusal to overshare.

Ever since the original movie was released in 2006, Anna has tried to distance herself from comparisons to Meryl Streep’s famously villainous character. In a 2024 interview with the BBC, she explained that whether or not people see similarities between her and Miranda Priestly is “up to the audience and my colleagues to decide.”

She seemed to change her mind at the 2026 Oscars while presenting the costume design awards with the film’s lead actress, Anne Hathaway.

When Anne playfully asked the fashion icon about her dress, the icon amusingly pretended she hadn’t heard and kept reading the list of nominees. A little later, Anna also responded to the fashion icon’s habit of calling everyone ‘Emily,’ jokingly thanking her by saying, “Thank you, Emily.”

Meryl was mainly drawn to the job because of Anna’s strong reputation.

Meryl Streep once told IndieWire she was struck by the expectation that Anna Wintour should appear more cheerful and approachable. Streep wondered what Wintour’s actual job entailed, considering the pressures of her deadlines and the need to maintain a polished, feminine image despite the demanding work.

She explained that as soon as she started reading the script, she knew it was something fresh and that young women would really enjoy it.

It’s not surprising Meryl Streep agreed to return as Miranda in the upcoming sequel, which comes out on May 1st. Fans will also be happy to hear that Anne Hathaway is back, along with original cast members Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.

Anne shared that making the movie felt incredibly special. While she hoped audiences would enjoy it, she was amazed by its lasting impact and the twenty-year connection she’s developed with the film since its creation, as she explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The highly anticipated sequel is coming to theaters soon! Let’s revisit the original The Devil Wears Prada and uncover some behind-the-scenes stories from the first movie…

Even before the book The Devil Wears Prada was published, a movie adaptation was already being planned. Fox executives were impressed with just the first 100 pages and a summary, which were enough to convince them to buy the rights. As Carla Hacken, a former Fox executive, explained to Variety magazine in 2016, she was the first person at the studio to read it and immediately recognized Miranda Priestly as a fantastic villain, leading them to quickly secure the project.

Even before the book became a New York Times bestseller in 2003, people were trying to adapt it into a movie. However, after four different writers attempted to create a straightforward script, Aline Brosh McKenna was brought in to rewrite it. Her version focused on the compromises women make to advance their careers at fashion magazines. “I wrote a first draft fairly quickly – it took about a month,” McKenna explained. “Then I revised it based on everyone’s feedback.”

Creating the backstory for the film proved challenging during production. According to author McKenna, people in the fashion industry were hesitant to speak with her, fearing repercussions from Anna Wintour and Vogue. She told Entertainment Weekly that one anonymous source read her work and pointed out the characters were too kind, arguing that people in that world simply don’t have the time or inclination to be nice. McKenna then revised the script to portray the characters as more driven and less forgiving.

Director David Frankel told Entertainment Weekly that Anna Wintour’s influence created challenges when finding filming locations. Because of the Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum wasn’t willing to let them film there, and Bryant Park – then the regular location for New York Fashion Week – was also unavailable.

We even looked at some famous apartment buildings for Miranda’s place, but the building committees wouldn’t allow us to film there. Finally, a producer friend, Wendy Finerman, let us borrow a five-story townhouse on the Upper East Side.

Bethenny Frankel shared that the team perfectly recreated Anna Wintour’s office for the film. According to Frankel, production designer Jess Gonchor secretly visited Wintour’s actual office for inspiration. The recreation was so accurate that she heard Wintour immediately redecorated her own office after seeing the movie.

The costumes for the movie also posed a problem. At first, according to Frankel in EW, they struggled to get well-known designers to contribute clothing. Designers were hesitant, not wanting to upset Anna Wintour.

The film’s incredible wardrobe was crafted by renowned costume designer Patricia Field, who gathered around 150 items from designers like Donna Karan, Zac Posen, Rick Owens, and even Prada. She carefully styled Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Miranda Priestly to be distinct from Anna Wintour herself. As Streep joked, “Everything was borrowed, so we had to be careful not to spill anything – especially spaghetti – because we couldn’t return stained clothes!”

You know, Anna Wintour actually has a pretty good sense of humor about herself, which I always appreciate! I recently read about a conversation she had with Meryl Streep for Vogue’s 125th anniversary issue. Meryl was talking about the toughest role she’d ever played – she’d portrayed Katherine Graham, a friend of Anna’s, in the movie The Post. Meryl started to answer, hinting it might be Anna, but Anna playfully cut her off with a laugh, saying, ‘No, no! We’re not going there, Meryl!’ It was a really charming moment, and showed a fun side of her that people don’t always see.

Anna Wintour actually did see the movie—the same screening as her previous assistant, Andrea Weisberger. Later, she told 60 Minutes that while she found it entertaining, it wasn’t an accurate portrayal of life at the magazine.

Honestly, Meryl Streep was Miranda Priestly, and everyone at the studio knew it. I read that one of the VPs, Hacken, actually told Variety they didn’t even bother thinking about anyone else! She said all she could think was, ‘Please, let it be Meryl.’ It’s amazing – when Meryl’s agent called to say she’d read the script and wanted to meet the director, Hacken apparently put him on hold just to celebrate! She was literally shouting with joy in her office. It just proves how perfect she was for the role, and everyone knew it!

Meryl Streep explained to Entertainment Weekly that she admired the character’s strength and refusal to compromise herself. She appreciated that the character didn’t shy away from her flaws, and that she didn’t try to be likable to get what she wanted—something Streep’s friend, Carrie Fisher, used to describe as being overly accommodating. Streep noted that the character simply didn’t engage in that kind of behavior.

Before agreeing to the role, Meryl Streep did something very characteristic of the demanding character she would play. Even though she’d already won two Oscars and received eleven more nominations, she wasn’t used to negotiating a higher salary. However, this time she confidently asked for more money.

She told Variety that the initial offer felt a little low, and didn’t quite reflect how much she contributed to the project. After she was prepared to leave, they increased the offer. She was 55 years old and had recently learned to confidently negotiate for herself.

Streep also requested specific scenes to ensure her portrayal of Miranda wasn’t overly exaggerated. She wanted to show Miranda’s expertise in fashion, particularly in the famous scene about the blue sweater, and also a more vulnerable side, showing her alone and unguarded in a hotel room.

Meryl Streep came up with the idea for Miranda Priestly’s white hair, debuting the look during a meeting with studio executives. Director David Frankel told EW that Streep fully embodied the character during that meeting, and the executives were so captivated they didn’t even comment on the hair – they simply looked into her eyes and remained silent.

Anne Hathaway revealed she wasn’t the first choice for her role in The Devil Wears Prada. She joked on RuPaul’s Drag Race that she was actually the ninth actress considered for the part, meaning she had to work extra hard to convince the filmmakers she was right for the role – perhaps even harder than her character, Andy, worked for Miranda Priestley in the movie.

Anne Hathaway revealed to Variety that while she didn’t need to audition, she had to be very persistent. She even went as far as writing “hire me” in the sand of the director’s zen garden! When she finally found out she’d been cast, she was getting dressed with friends at home. She remembers running into the living room, still half-dressed, and excitedly yelling, “I got The Devil Wears Prada! I got The Devil Wears Prada!”

I remember hearing how lucky Anne Hathaway was to get that role! Apparently, the studio really wanted Rachel McAdams for it – they actually asked her three separate times! The director, Garry Frankel, told Entertainment Weekly that Rachel was busy filming The Family Stone at the time, and she’d just come off huge hits like Mean Girls and The Notebook. She just didn’t want to jump into another big, popular movie right away. It was a total standoff – the studio was determined to get her, but she was equally determined to pass!

Kate Hudson turned down a highly coveted role, admitting the timing just didn’t work out. Speaking on Capital FM’s Capital Breakfast in February 2025, she said she regretted not making it happen, and immediately felt disappointed when she first read the script.

Meryl Streep, impressed by Anne Hathaway’s performance in the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, played a key role in getting Hathaway cast in The Princess Diaries. Director Garry Marshall remembered Streep telling him about the scene, then contacting Fox executive Tom Rothman to say she believed Hathaway was talented and they would work well together.

Finding the right actress for Emily proved even trickier. Frankel reviewed over 100 auditions for the part of Miranda’s tough assistant (including Tracie Thoms, who later auditioned for the role of Andy’s friend Lily). Ultimately, it was Emily Blunt, who showed up dressed casually, that really stood out to him.

Emily Blunt was already at the Fox studio auditioning for the movie Eragon when a casting director asked her to read for The Devil Wears Prada. She recalled on The Late Late Show in May 2021 that she was in a hurry to catch her flight and felt flustered. She did the reading while wearing sweatpants, so she didn’t make a very polished impression.

A few days after missing out on the role in Eragon, Emily Blunt received a call from casting director Billy Frankel. She explained to Variety that she was at a club in London and had to take the call from the bathroom. Frankel told her that while he liked her audition, the studio wanted to see her again, asking her to recreate the audition while wearing clothes more suited to the character.

Emily was originally conceived as an American character, but Emily Blunt’s performance changed that. When Blunt delivered the sharp lines with her British accent, the writers decided to rewrite the script to reflect that. As screenwriter McKenna explained to Entertainment Weekly, they met for coffee and added British phrases and expressions throughout the dialogue.

Emily Blunt shared that she often draws inspiration from real life, even ‘stealing’ moments from people she encounters. She described an instance on The Howard Stern Show where she observed a frustrated mother in a supermarket while filming. The mother, while scolding her child, made a specific gesture and said, ‘Yeah, I’m hearing this, and I want to hear this.’ Blunt found the line so authentic that she incorporated it into her movie.

Stanley Tucci played a key role in creating some of the most memorable lines in the film. After a lengthy search for the perfect actor to play art director Nigel, Tucci took the role just in time, as he told Entertainment Weekly. He then perfectly captured Nigel’s witty and sarcastic personality, even coming up with some of the character’s most famous lines on the spot.

Stanley Tucci recalled fondly a scene where Miranda first arrives at the office, causing a bit of a panic. He shared with Buzzfeed that the cast kept bursting into laughter during filming, and director David Frank kept improvising lines for Tucci to deliver. Ultimately, ‘Gird your loins’ made the final cut, but another one of Tucci’s suggestions – ‘Tits in!’ – didn’t. He told Entertainment Weekly that while it didn’t make it into the film, it always got a big laugh on set.

One of Stanley Tucci’s most cherished memories from making movies is the connection he’s made with his family. He became close with his co-star Emily Blunt, and was even invited to her wedding to John Krasinski in 2010. It was there he reconnected with Felicity Blunt, who is now his wife. They married in 2012 and have two children, Matteo and Emilia.

As Joe Tucci shared with People magazine, he first met his current wife at the premiere of a film in 2006. He was still married to his late wife, Kate, who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer at the time. He explained that he made the film, Kate began treatment, and then they attended the premiere. She lived for four more years after that. Interestingly, Felicity—Emily’s sister and now his wife—actually spoke with Kate at the premiere, and he has a photo of them together, which he finds quite strange.

Rosario Thoms, similar to Anne Hathaway, vividly recalls the day she found out she’d been cast as Lily – it was her 30th birthday in August 2005. While she felt good about her audition, having often played supporting, ‘best friend’ roles, she was still overjoyed when she got the news.

She remembered being at Dartmouth, workshopping a new play by Alan Ball. She found out she’d been cast in The Devil Wears Prada during lunch in the cafeteria. “They just casually told me, ‘You got the part! Happy birthday!'” she said. “It was a really nice birthday memory.”

Thoms recalls seeing Adrian Grenier, who was very popular during his role on Entourage, surrounded by fans. Grenier cleverly handled the constant autograph requests by giving everyone a CD from his band, The Honey Brothers, instead.

Thoms observed that Josh Grenier, playing Andy’s boyfriend Nate, used the attention to highlight his bandmates, since he wasn’t the lead singer. Thoms admired how Grenier thoughtfully acknowledged everyone’s support and actively returned the favor, promoting his fellow band members in turn.

Thoms really enjoyed her time working on the project, describing it as feeling like a grown-up, big-city experience similar to the show Sex and the City. However, she does have one thing she wishes had gone differently.

She had a specific idea for how to stage the moment when Lily and Thoms reacted to the Marc Jacobs bag. “I asked the props team to keep the bag hidden until we started filming, so my reaction would be real,” she explained. “The excited gasps, reaching for it, and begging for it—that all happened because the bag was truly stunning.”

She confessed to TopMob News that the purse was so beautiful she’d actually planned how to keep it. She even envisioned a scene where she’d ‘accidentally’ leave it in her trailer, but that scene was ultimately removed from the script. Sadly, this meant she never had the chance to retrieve the purse from set.

Meryl Streep didn’t travel to Paris for the film. Originally, no one was scheduled to shoot scenes in Paris for Miranda and Andy’s trip to Paris Fashion Week. Director David Frankel was shocked by this, but he created a compelling preview reel that convinced the studio to move the film’s release to the summer and increase its budget.

Hathaway and Simon Baker (playing Christian, her other love interest) traveled to France for filming, but Meryl Streep shot her scenes in New York. The studio said it was too expensive to fly Streep to France.

Meryl Streep actually ended up missing out on a lot of the enjoyable moments on set. She explained to Entertainment Weekly that fully immersing herself in her stern Miranda character and distancing herself from casual conversation with the cast was deeply unpleasant. She could hear everyone having fun and felt depressed, but justified it by saying, ‘It’s the price you pay for playing the boss!’ She later decided that was the last time she would ever try such an intense acting approach.

Before Meryl Streep adopted a more distant attitude, she offered Anne Hathaway a quick word of encouragement, as Hathaway told People. Streep said, “I want you to know I think you’re going to be great, and I’m so happy to work with you…and that’s the last nice thing I’m going to say to you.”

That’s all. 

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2026-04-22 02:19