In a revelation that has shaken both Hollywood and the global fashion world, legendary actress Meryl Streep, now 76, has opened up about the emotional and professional intensity she endured while filming The Devil Wears Prada â the film that not only gave us one of the most iconic performances of her career but also, as it turns out, left a far deeper mark than anyone realized. Nearly two decades after the filmâs release, Streep is finally lifting the veil on what it truly meant to become Miranda Priestly â a role that didnât just challenge her as an actress, but changed her as a person.
To the world, The Devil Wears Prada was a dazzling, stylish, razor-sharp portrait of ambition and power in the high-stakes world of fashion. But behind the scenes, the story was far more complicated. âPeople think it was all fun and fashion,â Streep said in a recent interview. âBut it nearly broke me.â The set, according to her, wasnât always the glamorous, light-hearted experience fans imagined. Her decision to stay in character â to maintain Mirandaâs icy distance â isolated her from her co-stars, not out of ego, but from artistic necessity. âI didnât want to be warm and friendly. I needed them to feel her chill.â That emotional distance paid off on screen but took a toll on her well-being off camera.
Streep wasnât even sure sheâd take the role in the first place. At first, she rejected the studioâs offer, calling it âinsulting.â She knew the value she brought to the film â not just in prestige, but in box office power â and she wasnât afraid to ask for what she was worth. âIf Iâm going to carry this movie, I should be compensated accordingly.â Eventually, the studio doubled their offer, and she agreed to take on the role â with one condition: the character needed emotional dimension. Streep insisted that Miranda Priestly be more than a villain. She shaped Miranda into a woman of immense strength and secret vulnerability, someone feared by the world yet quietly burdened by the price of her power.
But even with the added depth and complexity, filming remained grueling. The pressure to deliver a performance that would define the film â and, in some ways, a generation â was immense. Streep now admits that she felt lonely, drained, and emotionally taxed throughout the shoot. âIt wasnât fun. I wasnât having a good time,â she revealed. âBut I believed that was the only way to do her justice.â And her instincts were right. Miranda Priestly became a cultural icon â a symbol of female authority, ambition, and, paradoxically, isolation. Behind the icy exterior, thanks to Streep, lived a woman who had sacrificed intimacy and softness to survive in a world that punished powerful women.
And yet, the emotional cost of that performance seems to have mirrored parts of Streepâs own life. Her reflections on The Devil Wears Prada come at a time when the public has grown increasingly curious about her personal world. After decades of maintaining one of Hollywoodâs most private and seemingly steady marriages, Streep recently confirmed her quiet separation from her husband of 45 years, Don Gummer. The announcement stunned fans, not because of scandal, but because it revealed just how gracefully Streep had managed to keep heartbreak private for so long. Meanwhile, rumors of a budding relationship with comedian Martin Short have begun to swirl â an unexpected but somehow delightful development that has only added to the fascination surrounding this new chapter of her life.
Streepâs legacy as an actress is undisputed â over 21 Academy Award nominations, countless iconic roles, and the respect of peers across generations. But what continues to make her extraordinary is her refusal to coast on past success. Even at 76, she is evolving, reinventing, and re-examining her most famous work with the honesty of someone who has nothing to prove, but still so much to say. Her decision to speak candidly about The Devil Wears Prada is not merely a behind-the-scenes anecdote â itâs a powerful reflection on what it means to be a woman navigating authority, vulnerability, and visibility in an industry (and world) that is still learning how to deal with all three.
As Miranda Priestly herself might say, âThatâs all.â But for Meryl Streep, itâs anything but over. In fact, this may just be her boldest role yet: telling the truth.