“The Devil Wears Prada 2” star Anne Hathaway made the film’s producers promise that the models featured in the sequel would not look “skeletal,” after being shocked at a fashion show over the participants’ shared, overly thin look.
Hathaway’s co-star Meryl Streep revealed as much in a profile of the former published Wednesday by Harper’s Bazaar. Discussing the highly anticipated sequel, Hathaway noted that the film was made, unlike its beloved 2006 predecessor, “in view.” This meant, in part, that the film was welcomed by the same fashion brands that were initially hesitant to associate themselves with the first “Devil Wears Prada.”
As a result, Hathaway, Streep and some of the sequel’s other stars were all invited to attend high-end runway shows during Milan Fashion Week before production on “The Devil Wears Prada 2” began. While there, Streep said she and Hathaway were “struck by how not only beautiful and young—everyone seems young to me—but alarmingly thin the models were.”
“I thought that all had been addressed years ago. Annie clocked it too,” Streep explained, adding that Hathaway “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!” Streep concluded by calling Hathaway a “stand-up girl.”
The access they were provided was not the only difference Hathaway and Streep experienced during the making of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” They were also surprised by just how much attention the sequel’s shoot garnered.
“Even though we were aware of the impact of the first film two decades ago, I think none of us were prepared for the ambush of both goodwill and avid attention that engulfed us,” Streep told Harper’s Bazaar. “We needed police barriers and crowd control. Buses of fans turned up, and paparazzi swarmed and in one case kept jumping in front of the camera and the shot and got in a kerfuffle with crew! Annie kept her cool, but I was unnerved.”
This increased attention was on Hathaway’s mind during the filming of one scene when she accidentally fell down some steps. “I was aware that I was falling, I was aware that I was being photographed,” Hathaway explained. “I was also aware that, like, so many people on the crew, their hearts had just jumped up into their throat, so I needed to get up quickly to make sure they knew I was okay.”
Hathaway did exactly that, jumping up immediately after the fall. Later, she purportedly told director David Frankel in private, “Oh no. I’m news.”
Hathaway and Streep are not the only “Devil Wears Prada” stars who returned for the sequel. Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Tracie Thoms all came back as well. Adrien Grenier, however, was not asked back to reprise the role of Nate, a decision which the actor speculated this year may have been due to “backlash” to his character.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is set to hit theaters on May 1.
