Meryl Streep Doubled Her Fee for Devil Wears Prada — and the Studio Didn't Blink

Meryl Streep walked into her first Devil Wears Prada negotiation, heard the offer, and asked for twice as much — then watched the studio say yes without hesitation. Twenty years later, with the sequel arriving in theaters May 1, she finally told the story publicly.

“I read the script, the script was great. They called me up and they made an offer, and I said, ‘No, not going to do it,'” Streep told Today during a cast interview Wednesday. “I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see if I doubled my ask… And they went right away and said, ‘Sure.’ I thought, I’m 50-60 — it took me this long to understand that I could do that! They needed me, I felt. I was ready to retire. That was a lesson.”

The admission carries weight in a conversation about gender and pay equity that has defined Hollywood for years. Streep’s account makes the point without editorializing: a studio needed a specific actress for a specific role, she held her ground, and the money materialized immediately. The 2006 film earned over $325 million worldwide and earned Streep a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination.

Talks about a sequel surfaced as early as 2009, but Streep said the cast waited for the right idea to emerge. “It’s almost like the world had to shift in that way,” she said, crediting screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna with finding a story rooted in journalism, publishing, and political disruption.

The sequel finds Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs returning to Runway as the magazine confronts a transformed media landscape, with Emily Blunt’s Emily Charlton now a senior executive at Dior and Stanley Tucci back as Nigel Kipling. Kenneth Branagh and Justin Theroux join as new additions. Filming ran from June to October 2025 in Manhattan and Milan.

Hathaway said the screenplay gave her the clarity she needed to commit. “Aline McKenna cracked it, and she found a reason why we should make it beyond just nostalgia, beyond just giving people what they want,” she said. “She found something new and more to say with these characters.”

Early critical reaction has been broadly positive. One review described the film as finding “that delicate balance” between honoring the original and updating its world, praising the returning cast for slipping back into their roles seamlessly. A more measured assessment called it well-made fan service — appreciative but frank that the film functions “less as a follow-up than as a kind of tribute act.”

The sequel’s second trailer, which featured an original song by Lady Gaga and Doechii, recorded 222 million views within 24 hours of release — which 20th Century Studios described as the most-viewed trailer in the studio’s history.

Streep said she still finds the franchise’s cultural grip surprising. “Everybody has their origin story of when they saw it,” she said. “It’s very gratifying, but it’s also kind of mystifying.”