To be honest, as much I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada, it wasn’t a movie I watched more than once. But for others it bordered on being a cult film, proved by the fact that it’s still been spoken about today.
It has been ten years since the movie premiered, giving all us plebs some insight into the fashion world. With Meryl Streep as the devil boss and Anne Hathaway as her super keen employee, thankfully Emily Blunt was there to mix things up a bit.
To celebrate the decade of existence, TIME put together some little known facts about the film. Here are our favourites:
- Like Miranda Priestly, Meryl Streep leaned the hell in — and ended up doubling her salary: The actress told Variety that she had always been reluctant to negotiate for more pay, but changed her mind when she was consulted to star in The Devil Wears Prada. “The offer was to my mind slightly, if not insulting, not perhaps reflective of my actual value to the project,” Streep said. “There was my ‘goodbye moment,’ and then they doubled the offer. I was 55, and I had just learned, at a very late date, how to deal on my own behalf.”
- The film dominated the box office: The movie clocked in at $326 million worldwide — even more noteworthy because it was made for a thrifty $41 million.
- The movie has a celeb fanbase: John Legend told People that he and Chrissy Teigen love to re-watch the film. “We always joke about The Devil Wears Prada,” Legend said. “You can watch it every time it comes on, there’s just something about it.”
- This marked Anne Hathaway’s first lead “adult” role: Although Hathaway had ventured into serious territory with Brokeback Mountain, she considers this role her turning point in Hollywood. “I’m proud of what I did. But amongst the showy roles, it’s the quiet one,” Hathaway told Variety. “I think what people saw was promising—it made people want to see more.”
- Anne Hathaway took extreme measures to ensure she got the role: Anne Hathaway told Variety that she traced, “hire me,” into the sand of the zen garden in the office of former Fox 2000 executive vice president Carla Hacken, after meeting with her about the role.
- Meryl Streep tweaked her iconic last line: Variety reports that at the first table read, Streep poignantly changed her last line from “Everybody wants to be me” to “Everybody wants to be us.”
- Streep had unlikely inspirations for her role as chic-as-hell villain, Miranda Priestly: Streep told Variety that she didn’t pull inspiration for her chilly fashion boss from Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, despite countless comparisons. Instead, she was inspired by Clint Eastwood for her icily calm, quiet voice, but aesthetically by legendary model and white hair enthusiast Carmen Dell’Orefice.
It’s great to see a movie with three strong female leads dominating like it did. If you need some more The Devil Wears Prada goodness, just pop over to TIME and get your fashion fix.
[Although, if you want some real insight into the fashion world, you should totally watch The Fashion Fund. It’s amazing.]
[source: time]
