As The Devil Wears Prada 2 gears up for release, filmmaker-producer Karan Johar had a full-blown fan moment while interacting with stars Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway during an international promotional event in Tokyo.
“I’ve watched it more than 200 times. I’m the hugest fan. I’ve been channeling Miranda Priestly in many of my boardrooms. I run a studio. I’ve said ‘that’s all’ to almost every person who’s worked with me,” he said.
Asked if that meant he judged people’s shoes too, he admitted: “All the time. Each and every time.”
To which Meryl Streep, slipping effortlessly back into Miranda mode, responded,“You have the perfect shoe on today.”
Johar responded that he had arrived with “some groundbreaking florals for spring as well.”
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‘Miranda is not everyone’s idea of a good boss’
Responding to Karan’s question about whether he should be worried about channeling Miranda, Streep shared her take on the character’s legacy.
“I think that Miranda is not everybody’s idea of a role model for a good boss. But I think that she is someone who is credibly and reliably and respectfully in charge of the people. And she takes her job seriously. And she loves working, which I suspect you do,” she said.
Karan quickly related this to his own world, “Where else can you sing, dance, laugh and cry and still be at work? That’s what we do in Bollywood.”
‘Why this Benjamin Button phenomenon?’
The filmmaker also marvelled at how little Streep and Hathaway seemed to have changed over two decades. He told them, “I just want to say when I saw the trailer, I was like, what has happened? Why is this Benjamin Button phenomenon ruling these two wonderful ladies?”
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When he continued praising their appearance, Meryl gave a reply that looked straight out of Miranda Priestly’s handbook “You need a new prescription.”
Tackling nostalgia, 20 years later
With the sequel arriving nearly two decades after the original, Karan brought up the challenge of living up to nostalgia. “How do you combat 20 years of nostalgia? Because now the film belongs to all of us.”
Streep acknowledged the shift in time and context. She said, “The world has changed so profoundly in 20 years. I’ve changed in 20 years and you have changed in 20 years. And so we bring all of that into this new incarnation of Runway. And it deals with the digital revolution in journalism and in publishing. It deals with all those things of growing up, issues of growing up, of when to get out of the game, all those, all those things. It’s sort of in this delightful little package.”
Anne Hathaway on revisiting Andy
On returning to her character Andy Sachs, Anne Hathaway described it as both nostalgic and transformative.
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“I got to go back and work with all the people that protected me when I was a 22 year old actress who showed up on set, trembling like a leaf, couldn’t hit my mark, was so overwhelmed working with pretty fabulous actress. And I’ve built up my craft and I’ve built up my confidence over 20 years. And I got to come back and show these people that I love and respect so much and I’m so grateful to show them what I’ve been up to. And that felt wonderful.”
‘Took years to generate a concept for the sequel’
Karan also asked Meryl Streep what it felt like to return to the iconic character after two decades. She revealed that discussions around a sequel began just three years after the original film’s 2006 release, but it took years to arrive at the right concept.
“It felt sort of right. You know, I felt, look, the script is so good. This writer, Aline Brosh McKenna, wrote the first one. And they started talking about a sequel three years after the first film appeared because it was such a huge hit. So they started talking. And it took that long for her to find a concept. And the moment where we are right now with where journalism is, where publishing is, it took all that time to place these characters in jeopardy, in the shifting sands of the moment, to make an accommodation to where we are now. That’s what I feel like Miranda is. She’s navigating uncharted waters like we all are.”
About The Devil Wears Prada 2
The sequel reunites the iconic characters of Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs nearly two decades after the original achieved cult status. The film also marks the return of Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton and Stanley Tucci in his much-loved role.
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The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set for a worldwide release on May 1.
