Meryl Streep went for broke on the first “Devil Wears Prada” film, and not just on camera. The three-time Oscar winner says before she took the role, she asked for double the pay she was offered – and got it.
While promoting the hotly anticipated sequel to the beloved comedy with the rest of the cast on “Today,” Streep explained that she could tell the movie was going to work, and the offer wasn’t up to that potential.
“I read the script [for the original], the script was great. They called me up and they made an offer, and I said, ‘No, not going to do it,’” Streep said. “I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see if I doubled my ask … And they went right away and said, ‘Sure.’ I thought, I’m 50-60 [years old] — it took me this long to understand that I could do that! They needed me, I felt. I was ready to retire. That was a lesson.”
Streep returns as Miranda Priestly, the intense boss of Runway magazine, in “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel. In a separate interview on the press tour, the Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci noticed that Streep was less Method in her approach to the icy boss, allowing her to enjoy more time with her co-stars off-camera. Tucci teased she would “sometimes” show up for his famed martini hours while working on the sequel.
“We had a few with Meryl, yeah!” Blunt continued. “She was more Method-y on the first one. And then I think she kind of got bored with that on this one. I think she knew us too well.”
Streep agreed her choice to go Method for the first film was a detriment toward her complete enjoyment working on the film. In a 2021 oral history of “The Devil Wears Prada” for its 15th anniversary with Entertainment Weekly, the actress said keeping co-stars at an arm’s length was “horrible!”
“I was [miserable] in my trailer,” she said. “I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed! I said, ‘Well, it’s the price you pay for being boss!’ That’s the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!”
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” lands in theaters on Friday, May 1.
