The Devil Wears Prada (film)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Devil Wears Prada, a 2006 American comedy-drama directed by David Frankel, has a famous villain who made her entrance in a whisper. At a table read in New York, Meryl Streep spoke Miranda Priestly's first line so softly that the whole room fell silent. Anne Hathaway was nervous that day. Emily Blunt found that Streep's laugh settled her enough to play a nervous, distracted character. The film follows Andy Sachs, a young aspiring journalist who takes a job at a fashion magazine and finds herself at the mercy of its demanding editor. Making it was harder than the finished picture lets on, because the people who knew its world best feared the woman it seemed to portray. Why was everyone so wary of this movie? And how did a story about an assistant and her boss stay in people's conversations for years, from the boss to the boyfriend?

  1791436

• 2. Proposal To Script

  ›

  In 2003, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to Lauren Weisberger's novel before she had finished writing it. Carla Hacken, then the studio's executive vice president, had seen only the first hundred pages and an outline of the rest. Director David Frankel and producer Wendy Finerman had read the book in proposal form. Frankel remembers the stakes as high, since this was the biggest project they had tackled, with barely adequate resources.

  Frankel was hired despite limited experience. He had made one feature, Miami Rhapsody, along with episodes of Sex and the City and Entourage. For the film's attitude toward fashion, both silly and serious, he pointed to Unzipped, the 1995 documentary about the designer Isaac Mizrahi.

  Frankel nearly walked away. In his first meeting with Finerman, he said the story punished Miranda unnecessarily, and he prepared to consider other scripts. Two days later, his manager persuaded him to look for something he liked that he could shape the film toward. He took the job, giving Finerman extensive notes and a detailed vision for the picture.

  When the novel became a bestseller, parts of its plot were folded into the screenplay. Most of those parts drew their inspiration from Zoolander, the 2001 Ben Stiller film that satirized the fashion industry. Four screenwriters worked on the property. Peter Hedges wrote the first draft, and another writer passed. Paul Rudnick reworked some of Miranda's scenes, and Don Roos did a rewrite.

  Aline Brosh McKenna, who drew on her own youthful experiences, produced the draft that struck the balance Finerman and Frankel wanted. Their notes shaped the final version, which rearranged the plot significantly and centered it on the conflict between Andy and Miranda. Weisberger said McKenna's draft steered the story away from the "typical chick flick" direction it had been taking.

  McKenna's handling of Miranda went back and forth. At the request of Finerman and Frankel, she toned down Miranda's meanness, then restored it once Streep was involved. For the insults, she cited Don Rickles as her main influence. She also consulted acquaintances in fashion to make the script more realistic. That proved difficult, because they were wary of offending one very powerful editor.

  111123346

• 3. The Shadow Of Wintour

  ›

  Lauren Weisberger once worked as a personal assistant to Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of American Vogue. She is believed to have based Miranda Priestly on her former boss. Fear of what Wintour might do in retribution for visible cooperation created obstacles in both the fashion industry and the film industry.

  Wintour reportedly warned major designers that they would be banished from her magazine if they appeared in the film. Her spokespeople deny the claim. Whatever the truth, most designers and fashion figures stayed off screen. Many helped behind the scenes instead, offering background information. The co-op boards of many apartment buildings also refused to let the production use them as Miranda's home, because of Wintour's influence.

  A few names did appear. Valentino Garavani, who designed the black evening gown Miranda wears at the museum benefit, was in New York during production and agreed to a cameo. Heidi Klum appeared as herself. Gisele Bundchen agreed to take part on one condition, that she not play a model. Weisberger herself turned up as the twins' nanny.

  The set for Miranda's office borrowed from the real thing. Production designer Jess Gonchor told Women's Wear Daily that he based it on an online photo of Wintour's office, down to an octagonal mirror, photographs and a floral arrangement on the desk. In 2021, Frankel said Gonchor had even sneaked into the Vogue offices for a look. Weisberger judged the result close: "They got it really, really close". Wintour had her own office redecorated after the film's release.

  Wintour attended the New York premiere wearing Prada. Her friend Barbara Amiel reported her saying that the movie would go straight to DVD. McKenna recalled that Wintour's daughter kept telling her mother the film got many things right. In an interview with Barbara Walters, Wintour called it "really entertaining" and praised the "decisive" quality of Streep's portrayal. Streep joked that Wintour was "probably more upset by the book than the film".

  The thaw was not complete. In 2021, Frankel said that at a Miami tennis tournament a couple of years after the release, Wintour refused to shake his hand. In 2025, she told an interviewer she found the film highly enjoyable, full of wit, and "a fair shot".

  4564048

• 4. Casting Roulette

  ›

  Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all considered for the role of Miranda. Streep was almost passed over because people doubted she was funny. She also felt the pay she was first offered was too low. The producers doubled it to around $4 million, she signed on, and Fox finally greenlit the film.

  For Andy, the studio wanted a young A-list actress. Executives felt Rachel McAdams, then coming off Mean Girls and The Notebook, would help the commercial prospects. McAdams turned down several offers. Kate Hudson was offered the part but declined because of a scheduling conflict with You, Me and Dupree. Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson were also considered.

  Anne Hathaway went after the role openly. When she discussed the project with Hacken, she traced the words "Hire me" in the sand of the zen garden on the executive's desk. Frankel liked her enough that he did not require an audition. She still believed she was not the studio's first choice and that he would have to be patient.

  More than 100 actresses were considered for Emily before a casting agent taped Emily Blunt reading some of the lines elsewhere on the Fox lot. She had just auditioned for Eragon. She read in her own British accent, which interested Frankel, who liked her sense of humor. When the makers of Eragon cast Sienna Guillory, Frankel called Blunt. He said he would have cast her from the tape alone, but the studio wanted another audition with her dressed more in character. She insisted on continuing to play Emily as British.

  Stanley Tucci agreed to play Nigel only three days before shooting started. The filmmakers had auditioned Simon Doonan, creative director of Barney's, and Robert Verdi of E!, both openly gay and highly visible as fashion commentators. Graham Norton of the BBC auditioned too, along with 150 other actors. Verdi said there was never an intention to hire him. In his telling, he and Doonan were used to give the eventual star some filmed research. Tucci says he was unaware of that. He based Nigel on various people he knew and insisted on the glasses he ended up wearing.

  Colleen and Suzanne Dengel, who play Miranda's daughters, were cast two weeks after auditioning for Frankel and Finerman. Daniel Sunjata had read unenthusiastically for Tucci's part, then asked to audition for the role of the designer James Holt. Simon Baker auditioned by sending a video of himself in the same self-designed green jacket his character wears when he first meets Andy.

  2425262729

• 5. Becoming Miranda

  ›

  Streep stayed in character between takes, the only time she used a Method approach on a film. She lost so much weight during shooting that her clothes had to be taken in. She said she did not base Miranda on Wintour, but on men she had known. The catchphrases "that's all" and "please bore someone else", along with the coat-tossing on Andy's desk and the discarded steak lunch, were kept from the novel.

  In 2016, Streep told Variety that she took Miranda's soft speaking style from Clint Eastwood and her joking from the director Mike Nichols. "The walk, I'm afraid, is mine", she added.

  Miranda's bouffant was inspired by the actress Carmen Dell'Orefice, blended with "the unassailable elegance and authority of French politician Christine Lagarde". Streep wanted the hair to be white. The producers feared that would make her look too old, but the studio trusted her.

  When McKenna first saw Streep as Miranda on set, she was so terrified that she threw her arm in front of Frankel "like we were in a car wreck". Hathaway prepared by volunteering for a week as an assistant at an auction house. Frankel said she was "terrified" before her first scene with Streep. Streep had opened their working relationship by saying, "I think you're perfect for the role and I'm so happy we're going to be working on this together". Then she warned that it was the last nice thing she would say. The Dengels say the scene where Andy delivers the Book, the mockup of the magazine in progress, was totally improvised.

  The cerulean speech is the film's most quoted piece of dialogue. Miranda traces the designer clothes in Runway's pages back to Andy's cerulean blue sweater, mocking Andy's snobbishness about fashion. Streep saw the scene as being about marketing and business. McKenna expanded it to suit Streep and Frankel. Morwenna Ferrier wrote in The Guardian that fashion matters even to people who claim to be "oblivious to trends". Mic read the speech as a critique of cultural appropriation.

  Then there is the line many consider the film's best. When a colleague named Jocelyn pitches floral prints for spring, Miranda answers, "Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking!" McKenna wrote the scene with Streep in mind, and she put the words on the page as "florals." and "spring." Streep spoke them with a slight rising intonation, as if each ended in a question mark. McKenna ranks it with the earlier line "By all means move at a glacial pace; you know that thrills me." In her words, "It just punches you in the face ever so lightly, slowly ruining your self-esteem."

  718192021

• 6. Clothes, Sets, And Streets

  ›

  Costume designer Patricia Field had a budget of only $100,000. Friends in the industry filled the gap, and she estimated that a million dollars of clothing appeared on screen. The single priciest item was a $100,000 Fred Leighton necklace worn by Streep. Streep likened Field's wardrobe coup to the special effects in the Mission: Impossible films. Frankel recalls that Prada's decision to help "helped her break the ice" with other labels.

  Hathaway appears dressed entirely in Chanel after Nigel opens Runway's closet to her. Field felt Hathaway "was a Chanel girl organically", and the company was delighted to dress a younger image. Most garments were borrowed. Streep could not eat spaghetti at lunch in one dress, so that it could be returned clean. Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and the Lebanese designer Georges Chakra also contributed. Field dressed Streep in plenty of Prada but did not want viewers to recognize easily what Miranda was wearing.

  Blunt and Streep wore their character shoes only when the camera showed them in full, switching to Uggs the rest of the time. Hathaway always wore whatever she had been given. Blunt remembers her moving over cobblestone streets "like a sure-footed little mountain goat". Field gave Andy a low-risk style, the sort of clothing a fashion magazine would have on hand for shoots. Emily she saw as "so on the edge she's almost falling off", and chose pieces by Vivienne Westwood and Rick Owens. Tucci liked one Dries van Noten tie from the film so much that he kept it.

  Jess Gonchor gave the Runway offices a clean, white look meant to suggest a makeup compact. He chose different computer wallpaper for two assistants. Emily's shows the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, hinting at her ambition to travel with Miranda. Andy's shows a floral image, suggesting the natural, unassuming qualities she has when she starts. For the photo of Andy with her parents, Hathaway posed with her own mother and David Marshall Grant. The Dengel twins were asked every day for three years whether the Harry Potter advance copies in the film were real. They were "all gibberish", and the twins auctioned them on eBay for $586, along with film clothing, to benefit the Dress for Success charity.

  Principal photography lasted 57 days, starting on the 17th of September 2005 and ending in mid-December. The original budget covered only New York. Ballhaus composed many shots to take in busy street scenes in the background, conveying the glamor of the industry. He used a handheld camera in Miranda's office and slow motion for Andy's entrance after her makeover. After six weeks, Frankel persuaded the studio to pay for limited shooting in Paris. The crew spent only two days there, filming exteriors, and Streep did not make the trip. The hotel interiors were the St. Regis in Manhattan, and the fashion shows were filmed on a soundstage in Queens.

  In the editing room, Mark Livolsi realized, as McKenna had, that the film worked best when it stayed on Andy and Miranda. He cut mostly transitional scenes, among them Andy's job interview. Frankel admitted he had never even seen some of them, because Livolsi left them out of the prints he sent. In 2021, McKenna estimated that she had signed off on $10 million in cut scenes. The scene where Andy misses Nate's birthday was once a concert meetup, too expensive to shoot, so the cupcake version was written instead. A filmed alternate ending had the couple having their conversation about the future while running through a park. The less optimistic restaurant scene replaced it.

  4345485044

• 7. Reviews And Receipts

  ›

  Frankel's sizzle reel of Paris footage was meant only to convince Fox to fund some shooting there. It did more. The studio put a stronger marketing push behind the film and moved its release from February to summer, as a lighter alternative to Superman Returns at the end of June 2006. Frankel had used U2's "City of Blinding Lights" on that reel and wanted it in the film. Field pushed just as hard for Madonna's "Vogue". Composer Theodore Shapiro wrote 35 minutes of music, and the soundtrack album arrived on the 11th of July 2006 from Warner Music. Many fans were disappointed that "Suddenly I See" was left off.

  Two marketing choices meant to be temporary stuck. The first was a teaser poster showing a red stiletto heel ending in a pitchfork. Finerman called it almost "iconic", and it was used for the final release poster and on the novel's tie-in reprint, the soundtrack and the DVD covers. The second was a trailer built from the film's first three minutes, where Andy meets Miranda. It worked so well with early audiences that it became the main trailer. Elizabeth Gabler, a producer, said Fox saw the film as counter-programming against Superman Returns, but "we didn't want it to just seem like a chick flick coming out".

  The film premiered at the LA Film Festival on the 22nd of June 2006 and opened in American theaters on the 30th of June. It played on 2,847 screens right before the Independence Day holiday. Through Sunday the 2nd of July it earned $27 million, second only to Superman Returns. That broke a six-year-old record held by The Patriot for the biggest take by a movie opening that holiday weekend without winning it. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs broke the record in 2009. The film added $13 million in its first week and never topped any week's chart, yet it stayed in the top 10 through July. Its run continued until the 10th of December.

  Gabler said the marketing was aimed at women, though men did not resist. In her view, they wanted a glimpse inside fashion, and Miranda was enjoyable to watch. The release date helped word of mouth at holiday gatherings. "They were talking about it, like a summer reading book", she said.

  The film grossed nearly $125 million in the United States and Canada and over $326 million worldwide, against a budget of $35-41 million. That was a career high at the time for all three top-billed actresses. Weisberger's novel had been translated into 37 languages, and about 60 percent of the gross came from abroad. The European premiere took place at the Venice Film Festival, where gondoliers wore red T-shirts with the film's logo. When it reached European theaters on the 9th of October, it topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Spain and Russia with $41.5 million. The United Kingdom was the biggest foreign market at $26.5 million, ahead of Germany at $23.1 million. Japan led outside Europe at $14.6 million.

  The DVD arrived on the 12th of December 2006 with an audio commentary, a five-minute blooper reel and five featurettes. A Blu-ray Disc was released the same day without the featurettes. It became the top rental in the United States and held that spot through the end of the year. By the end of 2007 it had sold nearly 5.6 million units, worth $94.4 million.

  Critics were positive but measured. Metacritic gives the film a weighted score of 62 out of 100, based on 40 critics, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a B. Reviews centered on Streep. A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that her Miranda "inspires both terror and a measure of awe". David Edelstein called the film thin in New York magazine but praised her "fabulous minimalist performance". David Denby of The New Yorker summed up the picture with "Still, what a surface!" Blunt earned praise as well, with Clifford Pugh of the Houston Chronicle saying she "steals nearly every scene she's in". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian disagreed, calling her "strained and awkward".

  Fashion writers argued over its accuracy. Booth Moore of the Los Angeles Times called it a fashion fantasy with little to do with reality, and Field replied that it was not a documentary. Ginia Bellefante of The New York Times called it "easily the truest portrayal of fashion culture since Unzipped". Her colleague Ruth La Ferla reported that industry insiders found the fashion too safe.

  Streep won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a musical or comedy. She received her 14th Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, plus nominations from BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild and the Critics' Choice Awards. Field earned an Oscar nomination for costume design. The National Society of Film Critics gave Streep its supporting actress prize for this film and for A Prairie Home Companion. In October 2006, Frankel and Weisberger accepted the first Quill Variety Blockbuster Book to Film Award.

  257597185

• 8. Long Afterlife

  ›

  Variety argued in 2016 that the film helped all three of its leads. Streep proved she could carry a summer movie alone, which opened doors to Mamma Mia! in 2008 and Julie & Julia in 2009. For Hathaway, it was her first leading role for an adult audience. Producers were impressed that she held her own opposite Streep, and she moved on to Rachel Getting Married and Les Miserables, which won her an Oscar. Hathaway said of Blunt, "I've never witnessed a star being born before." Blunt says the coffee shop staff in Los Angeles recognized her the day after the release. Even ten years later, people quote her lines back to her at least once a week.

  Gabler said the film showed distributors that a strong female audience existed that was not divided by age. Streep valued something else. "This was the first time, on any movie I have ever made, where men came up to me and said, 'I know what you felt like, this is kind of like my life.'"

  In 2009, The Simpsons titled an episode "The Devil Wears Nada". The American Office opened an episode with Steve Carell as Michael Scott imitating Miranda. Kris Jenner dressed as her on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In 2008, The New York Times wrote that the movie had defined the public image of a personal assistant. In 2016, the Times used the phrase "Devil Wears Prada economy" while covering a proposed change to federal overtime rules. A Fox series planned for the 2007-08 season never reached a pilot. The book returned to the best-seller lists, ranking eighth on USA Today's 2006 list and second among the most borrowed library books.

  Alison Herman wrote in The Ringer that the film moved Wintour "from a tyrant in chinchilla to an idol for the post-Sandberg age". Variety credited it with stirring interest in the TV series Ugly Betty and said, "Like many instant classics, Prada benefited from perfect timing". Critics also reexamined the boss. On the tenth anniversary, Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post argued that Miranda anticipated TV antiheroines such as Olivia Pope and Cersei Lannister. In her phrase, Miranda had "zipped herself into a life as regimented and limited as a skintight pencil skirt". Mekia Rivas of Harper's Bazaar later called her "a totally toxic superior".

  The biggest surprise is who viewers came to blame. In 2021, the actor who played Nate, Grenier, said Nate had come to be seen as the film's real villain. Entertainment Weekly collected social media posts in 2017 that complained he berated Andy for missing his birthday party even though she had a good work reason. McKenna defended him: "what people focus on is that he's trying to restrict her ambition. But her ambition is going towards something that she doesn't really believe in, so he has a point". Hathaway was more forgiving, noting that anyone can be pouty at times.

  Weisberger wrote a book sequel in 2013, Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns. A film sequel looked unlikely, since Streep reportedly said she was not interested. In 2015, Broadway producer Kevin McCollum began pursuing a stage musical. Early in 2017, he announced that Elton John and Shaina Taub would write the score and lyrics. Paul Rudnick, who had written early scenes for the screenplay, would write the book. A first industry-only reading took place in July 2019, and a Chicago premiere run was announced for July and August 2020 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre.

  In July 2024, it was reported that Walt Disney Studios had entered early development on a film sequel. The Devil Wears Prada 2 was released on the 1st of May 2026 by 20th Century Studios. Streep, Hathaway, Blunt and Tucci returned. The story finds Emily now a high-ranking executive at a luxury group, controlling the advertising money that Runway needs as traditional magazine publishing declines.

  715555636