Meryl Streep says she was never interested in copying Anna Wintour when she built Miranda Priestly, the icy fashion editor who became one of cinema’s most recognizable figures. With The Devil Wears Prada 2 due out May 1, Streep says the role was always her own creation, not a portrait pulled from life.
“I wanted to make my own person,” Streep said, adding that “my Miranda is fully formed.” She also said, “Certainly this script has no relation to Anna Wintour, because it's just all made up. It isn't based on anything.”
The comments land as interest in the sequel builds around a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt. The original film came out in 2006 and was based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name, long after fans began comparing Wintour and Miranda Priestly.
Streep has not been shy about what she saw in Wintour, even while distancing the character from her. In 2016, she told IndieWire that it interested her that Wintour was expected to be “smilier, nicer, sweeter,” and said she was drawn to the demands of the job behind the image. “Well, hell, what is her job? What does she have to do? What are her deadlines?” she said at the time, arguing that the outward polish of fashion came with pressure most viewers never see.
She also described Wintour as “very witty” and praised what she called “the integrity of her own life, her own space, her own self.” In her words, “I just love her reticence” in an “oversharing world” where everyone seems to broadcast every getting-ready moment before an event. Wintour, for her part, told the in 2024 that it was “for the audience and for the people I work with to decide if there are any similarities between me and Miranda Priestly.”
That distance did not stop the comparisons from resurfacing at the 2026 Oscars, when Wintour ignored Hathaway’s question about her dress and kept reading the nominees list before saying, “Thank you, Emily.” Hathaway later said on April 15 that “It felt so special when we were making it,” a reminder that the sequel still carries the same old mix of nostalgia, vanity and unfinished business. What Streep has made clear is that Miranda was never meant to be Anna Wintour in disguise; the character was built to stand on her own, and that is exactly how she still reads.