Anne Hathaway ensured “The Devil Wears Prada 2” did not feature models who were “alarmingly thin,” co-star Meryl Streep revealed in a new Harper’s Bazaar cover story about Hathaway’s major movie year ahead. The “Les Miserables” Oscar winner has big roles in A24’s “Mother Mary,” the “Prada” sequel and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” all before the fall.
Unlike the first “Devil Wears Prada” movie, where fashion brands hesitated to have their clothes featured in a movie that was an unknown wild card, the sequel filmed with the support of several high-end fashion brands and the cast even attended actual runway shows during Milan Fashion Week. It was a wake-up call for Streep, who returns to her Oscar-nominated role of Miranda Priestly.
“I was struck by how not only beautiful and young — everyone seems young to me — but alarmingly thin the models were,” Streep told the magazine about attending fashion shows. “I thought that all had been addressed years ago. 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.”
Streep admitted she was “unnerved” during the filming of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” because of what a sensation it caused. Paparazzi and hundreds of fans swarmed the set each day as it filmed in New York City.
“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 said. “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.”
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” centers on Hathaway’s Andy Sachs as she becomes the features editor for Runway magazine, which brings her back into contact with Streep’s editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. Andy was Miranda’s second assistant in the first movie. The duo’s attempts to revive the magazine bring them face to face with Miranda’s former first assistant, Emily Blunt’s now high-powered Emily. Stanley Tucci also returns as Nigel.
“[Hathaway] really carried the heavy, heavy load,” director David Frankel said. “I mean, she’s in every scene of this movie, so she really had to show up day after day, and she was tireless and uncomplaining and enthusiastic.”
Frankel added about the sequel: “The characters are obviously 20 years along in their careers and at very different places, and the world of media is in a very different place. Andy has had a career in journalism that mirrors a lot of people’s experiences in journalism these days… [the sequel] is a movie about a woman in her 40s … about how you make peace with the world as you find it, not the world that you wish existed.”
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” opens in theaters May 1 from 20th Century Studios and Disney. Head over to Harper Bazaar’s website to read Hathaway’s cover story in its entirety.
