Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are reflecting on the frenzy they had to navigate while filming The Devil Wears Prada 2.
In a cover story for Harper’s Bazaar published Wednesday, Hathaway said the difference with returning alongside the cast 20 years after the original was that they were now “in view.”
“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.”
Another notable difference was while filming the first film, fashion brands were initially hesitant to lend clothes. But this time around the cast was able to attend actual fashion shows during Milan Fashion Week. Last September, Streep appeared in character as Miranda Priestly while seated in the front row at Dolce & Gabbana with co-star Stanley Tucci.
Streep said she was “struck by how not only beautiful and young — everyone seems young to me — but alarmingly thin the models were” given she “thought that all had been addressed years ago.”
“Annie clocked it too,” Streep said, “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.”
With a media frenzy and fans eager to watch the stars on set of the anticipated sequel (In videos posted to social media on Aug. 20, Hathaway and star Stanley Tucci can be seen asking paparazzi to “relax” and step back while filming a scene in Central Park), Hathaway was photographed falling down steps. She poked fun at the mishap on social media writing, “Twenty years later, still falling for you,” while sharing the clip of her falling along with her memorable fall in The Princess Diaries. However, Hathaway explained her thought process in that moment given the heightened focus of fans during filming.
“I was aware that I was falling, I was aware that I was being photographed and 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,” she recalled. Though she jumped up quickly to let everyone know she was okay, privately, Hathaway said she told director David Frankel, “Oh no. I’m news.”
Hathaway, Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are reprising their roles from the original film for the sequel releasing on May 1. In the new film, director Frankel teased to Harper’s that “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” also adding that it “is a movie about a woman in her 40s … [that’s] about how you make peace with the world as you find it, not the world that you wish existed.”
In addition to The Devil Wears Prada 2, Hathaway also announced that she will return for a Princess Diaries 3. Revisiting the beloved films years later, Hathaway is aware of the impact her roles have had on a generation.
“I feel like I was, like, everybody’s babysitter,” Hathaway said. “And I was a child when I made The Princess Diaries. I was still a 22-year-old mess of a human when I made The Devil Wears Prada. And so, we’ve grown up together, and I’m so happy for them and how their lives are unfolding. Like, this crazy thing where people just graduate from high school and they just send me their graduation announcements. People send me their wedding invitations. It’s so very sweet. And I feel bad, because I can never do anything with them, because I’m not Taylor Swift–level organized. Maybe someday.”
