Meryl Streep has just claimed that The Devil Wears Prada had to “scrabble” for funds because it had been labelled as a “chick flick.”
The 76-year-old actress, who reprises her role as Miranda Priestly in the upcoming sequel, recalled how hard it was for the David Frankel-directed adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s novel to pull together a budget because of how the studios viewed the genres.
Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Meryl said: “Twenty years ago, it was categorised as a ‘chick flick,’ and that designation has kind of not worn well after Barbie and Mamma Mia!—to throw that in—and other films that completely catch the studios by surprise that people want to see them, because they have girls in the center of the story, women in the center of the story.”
“So, we had to scrabble for our budget. And that was true,” the iconic actress clarified.
“I’ve talked to Greta [Gerwig] about it, that was true with Barbie a little bit, in comparison with what they spend on other films,” she revealed.
But after the 2006 movie earned more than $326 million around the world, there were no such problems when making the sequel.
Over which, Meryl jokingly said, “This one, honey, they spent the money.”
While Vogue‘s legendary editor Anna Wintour is widely regarded as the inspiration for Meryl’s character Miranda, the veteran actress explained how she drew on two directors to inform her portrayal.
She said, explaining her character, “If Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood had a baby, it would be Miranda Priestly.”
Meryl continued, “Because [of] just the command on the set. Mike would do it sort of with a sly humour, and Miranda knows what she’s saying is kind of snide, but she knows it’s kind of funny, too.”
“And calm, because Clint never would raise his voice. He would direct, and people would have to lean forward to hear what he was saying,” she explained.
Additionally, the 76-year-old praised her co-star Anne Hathaway, who is returning to The Devil Wears Prada sequel as Andrea Sachs.
She told Harper’s Bazaar magazine: “[I was] 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.”
“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,” Meryl Streep said of her experience while working again with Anne Hathaway.
