Meryl Streep Rejected ‘Devil Wears Prada’ at First So She Could Double Her Salary: ‘They Needed Me. I Was Ready to Retire’
Meryl Streep very nearly didn’t play Miranda Priestly.
Speaking on “Today” as part of a group interview with her “The Devil Wears Prada 2” castmates Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, Streep discussed her decision to sign on for the 2006 original.
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“I knew it was going to be a hit,” Streep told host Jenna Bush Hager (who herself has a cameo in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”). “I read the script — the script was great. They called me up, and they made an offer, and I said ‘No. I’m not going to do it.’” Streep said she foresaw the film’s success — and wanted to be paid accordingly. “I wanted to see if I doubled my ask, and they went right away and said ‘Sure.’”
Recalling the decision, Streep said, “I’m 56 years [old] — it took me this long to understand that I could do that! I was sure of it. I was sure it would be a hit. And they needed me, I felt. And I wanted it, but if they didn’t want to do that, I was okay. Because I’m old — I’m 56, I was ready to retire.”
It was a lesson well learned (and that Streep may have applied to her performance as the steely editor-in-chief onscreen). Streep may have been ready to retire pre-“Prada,” but the years following it were astonishingly productive, including her third Oscar win, for “The Iron Lady,” in 2012. “The Devil Wears Prada,” for which Streep was Oscar-nominated, would end up catapulting Streep to a new echelon of fame as a box-office draw, with subsequent movies like “Mamma Mia!” and “It’s Complicated” continuing a hot streak. And now, the sequel, coming 20 years after the original, represents another potential comeback, as it’s Streep’s first live-action movie performance in five years.
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