“I don’t know if any of us knew it was going to become what it did. It’s quoted to me every week. It will be the movie that changed my life.”
Gird your loins, Devil Wears Prada fans! Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt just reunited for a filmed one-on-one chat for Variety. As one might expect, their conversation was full of reminiscences over their time on set, from the bond they created with each other to Meryl Streep’s uncanny ability to improvise an iconic line.
They began their interview by recalling how they first met—or, in Blunt’s case, trying to recall.
“Did we meet before the table read?” the Oppenheimer star asked Hathaway.
Hathaway promptly replied, “This is so embarrassing because I remember every second of the first time I met you. I’m so much more into you than you are into me. It’s fine. It’s fine.”
The Eileen star went on to describe her first impression of her costar. “I was hearing that your name came up, and they said, ‘It’s this amazing girl out of England and she’s so funny.’ And I remember walking into the room and turning and meeting you. In my head—instant thought—I was like, ‘What a movie star!’” she said. “You were shedding stardust. Then we went for coffee. I took you for a walk around where I live.”
Blunt similarly had warm words for Hathaway’s initial impression on her. “I was so green coming into that situation. And you were like the warmest embrace,” she said. “Even though you were a colossal movie star at that time, you treated me like a complete equal. You are one of the people I’ve known longest. We’ve known each other for 18 years.”
The star-studded movie featured Hathaway as Andy Sachs, a prospective-journalist-turned-assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor-in-chief of fictional magazine Runway. Blunt played Emily Charlton, Miranda’s bossy first-in-command assistant.
Blunt reflected on the lasting effect that The Devil Wears Prada had on her career. “We just had a joy bomb of a time on that movie,” she said. “I don’t know if any of us knew it was going to become what it did. It’s quoted to me every week. It will be the movie that changed my life.”
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The two also brought up some of their favorite lines from the 2006 film—many of which, apparently, were improvised by Streep.
“I remember seeing Meryl come up with 18 different lines on the spot. Stanley Tucci was doing the same, and you,” Hathaway recalled. “I was just like this kindergartner who was like, ‘How are they all so good?’”
Of her character’s antagonism towards Hathaway’s character, Blunt said, “I would laugh all the time because I was so horrible to you most of the time in this movie. And it was your little face—this beautiful, slightly baffled face.”
“A deer in headlights,” Hathaway affirmed. “You know, I think [Meryl] always wanted to join in on the fun with us. She kept herself so in character.”
“Do you know she’s never done Method acting since?” asked Blunt. “She said it made her so miserable on this one, because we were all having a party on the other side of the set. And she was like, ‘I won’t do this again.’”
Watch their full conversation below.