Meryl Streep Said No To The Devil Wears Prada Before Changing Her Mind
"I said, ‘No, not going to do it.'"
As difficult as it is to imagine, there was almost a world where Meryl Streep didn’t play Miranda Priestly. Though the role of The Devil Wears Prada’s scathing fashion editor went on to become one of the actor’s most beloved (and quotable) performances, Steep revealed that she initially turned the part down. What ended up changing her mind is a lesson is advocating for your self-worth.
Streep told the story of almost passing on The Devil Wears Prada during her April 29 appearance on Today. When the couture comedy was casting in the mid-2000s, Streep was offered the eponymous role, but despite loving the film, she turned it down for a couple reasons: the relatively low-seeming pay, and the fact she was “ready to retire” at that point.
“I read the script. Script was great. And they called me up and they made an offer, and I said, ‘No, not going to do it,’” Streep said. “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.”
Streep admitted that she wished she had the courage to negotiate her pay much earlier. “I thought, I’m 56 — it took me this long to understand that I could do that,” Streep said. “They needed me, I felt. I was ready to retire. But, you know, that was a lesson.”
Although other big names were up for Miranda — including Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, and Catherine Zeta-Jones — Streep was director David Frankel’s “first choice” to portray the part, as he confirmed to IndieWire in 2016. In the same story, producer Elizabeth Gabler disclosed that Streep was paid “maybe $4 million” to sign on, considerably higher than her co-lead Anne Hathaway, whose salary was “below $1 million.”
Interestingly, Hathaway had a dramatically different casting story than Streep. Unlike her much more established co-star, Hathaway was far from the first choice to play fish-out-of-water journalist Andy Sachs — in fact, she was the ninth choice. She wound up getting the role after Rachel McAdams, Kate Hudson, several other actors turned down offers.
