By the D23 Team
Twenty years after making their iconic turns as Miranda, Andy, Emily and Nigel, Oscar® winner Meryl Streep, Oscar winner and newly named Disney Legend Anne Hathaway, Oscar nominee Emily Blunt, and Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci return to the fashionable streets of New York City and the sleek offices of Runway magazine in 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2—the eagerly awaited sequel to the 2006 phenomenon that defined a generation. The film is directed by David Frankel, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, produced by Wendy Finerman, and executive produced by Michael Bederman, Karen Rosenfelt and Aline Brosh McKenna.
As the film’s May 1 release approaches, we’re taking a spin through the iconic returning characters of The Devil Wears Prada 2—and where we find them as the story kicks off—as well as the fresh faces you’ll meet at Runway this time ‘round... so read on to find out who’s who!
Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)
Explains Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada 2 begins when Miranda is on top of the world, yet at the same time, there’s an earthquake under her feet. The brand is being threatened, and the business model of magazines is disintegrating, and in some ways, the movie is about how to run a cogent or viable company while navigating new waters. She’s contending with the exhaustion of that and all the pressures of being at the head of a big corporation.” Asked how she thinks Miranda has changed, “She’s probably a teensy bit meaner like I am, because in time, you give considerably fewer f...considerations to what you say. [Laughs.] She’s a little freer, but she’s also more precariously placed in her world, and she knows it. She’s still canny, however, and she still keeps a tight control over herself and her team. What hasn’t changed is her appetite for work, for doing what she loves and what she’s pretty great at.”
Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway)
“I think the Andy we meet in this film is someone who has remained true to herself over the last 20 years,” says Hathaway. “She made life choices and set off in a direction that she believed in, and I think she’s been really fulfilled by that decision. Her life doesn’t necessarily look like anyone else’s, but it does look like hers, and she’s happy about that. She has professional confidence, which she earned. She knows her way around an office and has a little bit of power now, but is still a lovely person to have in a work environment, and seems like somebody who’d be really fun to be friends with, too.”
Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt)
“Emily is now in a senior position at Dior,” Blunt explains. “Basically, she’s got power now, God help us. And I think she’s now in a position where she really enjoys lauding that kind of power over people. The biggest pursuit in her life is to be iconic. I think that’s what she wants... I love this character so much. She’s completely mad and completely unfiltered. She’s constantly outraged about everything…about air. She’s outraged about life, and it’s very fun to play someone who is so unfiltered, so rude, so watchful and insecure. I mean, I feel for her; I think she’s brimming with all kinds of insecurities. She’s a lunatic, but I just love playing her so much.”
Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci)
Says Tucci, “Nigel’s still at it. The fashion and media industries have changed. Everything is online, everything is digital, but he’s still there plugging away... I loved playing Nigel, and the original film was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. This is just a really, really genuinely nice group of people. There are a lot of new faces in this film as well, and that was a great breath of fresh air. It’s very interesting to now be the elder statesman on set.”
Amari (Simone Ashley)
One of Miranda’s newest assistants at Runway, “Amari is all business,” says Ashley. “Aline [Brosh McKenna, the screenwriter] and I would brainstorm about the kind of life in Manhattan she would have outside of Runway. She has a deep passion and education for the world she works in, but also a confidence and very strong sense of self when it comes to assisting and protecting Miranda. I love how Aline introduces her—she’s the voice for the younger, newer audience that perhaps didn’t grow up with the original.”
Charlie (Caleb Hearon)
Another new Runway assistant, Hearon explains that “Charlie is a sweetheart. I got the impression that he also read Runway with a flashlight in bed and looks up to Nigel a lot. He’s just happy to be there.” And some years of experience as an assistant helped his portrayal: “I definitely thought back on that time of my life and took inspiration for Charlie. The way you straighten up in your chair and look busy when your boss walks by, how your tone is different when you greet somebody new, the way Charlie would talk to Amari (his most direct superior) versus to other people.”
Jin (Helen J. Shen)
Without giving too much away, assistant Jin interacts with Andy once she returns to Runway magazine. Says Shen, “I think Runway has changed a lot, but I would say that Jin has a kind of hunger that actually mirrors Andy’s hunger from when she was an assistant. And I think that their teamwork together helps bring about a creative solution to a problem.” Shen was appearing in Broadway’s Maybe Happy Endings at the same time as shooting The Devil Wears Prada 2: “Though the two pieces were vastly different in subject matter, I was using the comedy education that I was receiving doing a theater piece every night to really hone in on the comedy in this film,” she explains.
Stuart (Kenneth Branagh)
Soon, we’ll see how the mysterious Stuart intersects with Miranda’s life. “Stuart is an artist,” says Branagh. “He’s a musician. He plays the violin but he also composes. He’s had troubles in his own life with some demons that he’s had to overcome, and our sense is that probably Miranda has helped him with those. And for that support, he is eternally grateful. I have the sense that perhaps, distinct from other men, he doesn’t need things from her in the same way. So, there’s an independence of spirit, which she might admire or respect at least. There’s a kind of maverick artist spirit, which she might also be amused by or at least be familiar with.”
Jay Ravitz (B.J. Novak)
“In the script, he was described as a guy who wears expensive synthetic activewear,” says Novak. “That told me a lot. That tells me he likes to be comfortable. He thinks of himself as modern. This is a guy who sees himself on the move.” And Novak is also a big fan of screenwriter McKenna, and of Streep: “Anytime I get a call from Aline to do something she wrote, I live to do it—don’t tell her. But when she told me this was for The Devil Wears Prada 2 and I had scenes with Meryl Streep, it was hard to keep a straight face. It was the best call I’d ever gotten.”
Peter (Patrick Brammall)
Says Brammall, “I’m Australian, and I got to play Peter in my natural accent. He’s a very down-to earth guy, but savvy as well. I’d like to think he came up from Australia and made his way into a position where he is able to go from a humbler background to doing what he does. He’s smart, he’s got a strong work ethic, and he understands the value of compromise.”
Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu) and Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux)
The Devil Wears Prada 2 director David Frankel says of Liu’s character Sasha, “She’s a woman who’s been through some highs and some surprising lows, at least in her relationship, and is determined to make a difference in the world and celebrate what she perceives to be essential and worth protecting. Lucy understood Sasha instinctively—both her charming, glamorous side and the part of her that wants to clothe and feed the world.” And of Benji, Frankel explains, “Benji’s a character who doesn’t seem like he’s got all his marbles at all times, and yet when he’s talking about something that he understands and is important to him, he’s absolutely brilliant and incisive and a little terrifying... Justin couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about being a part of our family, even if it was a small role on paper.”
Don’t miss 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2, only in theaters beginning May 1!