Meryl Streep Tried to Joke About “The Devil Wears Prada” With Anna Wintour
We may be willing to indulge in every aspect of The Devil Wears Prada, but Anna Wintour (who is believed to have inspired the character of Runway EIC Miranda Priestly) apparently doesn’t feel the same. Meryl Streep, Miranda Priestly’s portrayer, learned that when she attempted to joke about the film with the world’s most (in)famous fashion magazine editor during a recent interview for Vogue and was totally (though politely) shut down.
The actress, who appears on the cover of Vogue‘s December issue, sat down with the EIC to chat about the state of Hollywood and Streep’s new movie, The Post, which costars Tom Hanks, Alison Brie, and Sarah Paulson and tells the true story of Katherine “Kay” Graham, a friend of Wintour’s who was also the first female Fortune 500 CEO. As publisher of The Washington Post, Graham led the paper through the Watergate scandal and helped challenge the federal government for the right to publish classified information.
Those are some big shoes to fill, even for an Oscar winner, but Graham is certainly not the first intimidating figure Streep has played. “Obviously you’ve played a lot of extraordinary women. What was the most challenging woman you ever played?” Wintour asked the actress in their one-on-one.
Streep hesitated for just a moment before replying, “Oh, I should say [you],” and gesturing toward her interviewer. She had a good laugh at the thought, but Wintour quickly steered the conversation away from that film.
“No, no, we’re not going to go there, Meryl,” she replied, smiling, prompting Streep to add, “That wasn’t [challenging], anyway. That was fun.”
We can totally see why the role would be fun to play — honestly, most of us would jump at the chance to step into Miranda Priestly’s Christian Louboutins — but from the looks of this conversation, it might be best not to talk about that in the presence of Wintour.
In any case, the famed editrix and Streep went on to talk about much more important matters, including the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which Streep and her daughters discuss at the dinner table. “That’s all we talk about. It’s horrible,” she told Wintour. “We want them to be free, we want them to be proud, we want them to be female. You put them in danger by not informing them about the male gaze and how it works on young girls.”
What’s your favorite Meryl Streep role? Let us know @BritandCo!
(Photo via Christopher Polk/Getty Images for TNT + Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com)
