Simone Ashley arrived at the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 on May 1 as one of Hollywood’s most strategically positioned rising stars — a Bridgerton breakout who spent the summer of 2025 working alongside Meryl Streep and calling it a masterclass. The 31-year-old British actress plays Amari Mari, Miranda Priestly’s formidably composed first assistant in David Frankel’s long-awaited sequel, and she is determined that audiences see the character as something entirely her own.
The comparison to Emily Blunt’s original assistant was unavoidable from the start, but the filmmakers encouraged Ashley to resist imitation. Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna made clear that the sequel was not a remix of the original, and that a fresher, distinctly different energy was needed. Ashley obliged. Where Blunt’s Emily was a coiled ball of career anxiety, Amari operates from a place of cool authority. The screenwriter and director shared an inside joke throughout production: Amari is being groomed to become the next Miranda Priestly.
For her character inspiration, Ashley drew from Rihanna and, more surprisingly, Richard Gere — two figures who project confidence without noise. She wrote one of Amari’s sharpest one-liners herself. The role demanded improvisation, swagger and the nerve to trade barbs with Academy Award-winning co-stars, and Ashley prepared by relocating to New York City. She moved there in May or June 2025 for pre-production and, as she put it, never looked back.
Her scenes alongside Streep proved transformative. Ashley watched closely as Streep made deliberate choices about how her costume informed her character — something Ashley adapted for her own performance. The experience shaped how she now approaches her craft entirely.
The film lands into a marketplace primed for exactly this kind of event. The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned $10 million in Thursday preview screenings and is projected to open between $75 million and $100 million domestically, with global estimates reaching $175 million to $190 million. The sequel holds a 78 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising Streep’s performance while noting some unevenness in the script. Audience scores stand at 88 percent, well ahead of the original film’s 76 percent.
Ashley also spoke candidly about her position as a South Asian woman in Hollywood at a moment when on-screen diversity has visibly contracted. She argued that authentic representation requires structural change — more writers, directors and producers from underrepresented communities — and described her role as L’Oréal Paris’s global face as an extension of that mission. She has also just released her debut EP, and said she would welcome the chance to integrate music into film if the right project emerged.
As for Bridgerton, she says she plans to return for as long as the schedule allows. And should F1: The Movie — a production that cut her role from its final edit — move forward with a sequel, she says she would go back in a heartbeat.
