Emily Blunt Says She Was ‘Dressing Like a Teenage Boy’ Before Starring in The Devil Wears Prada

Andy Sachs wasn’t the only person who learned a thing or two about fashion in The Devil Wears Prada.

Emily Blunt — who played Meryl Streep’s brisk know-it-all assistant in the 2006 film alongside Anne Hathway’s Andy — admitted that she picked up quite a lot of industry knowledge during her time on set.

“I didn’t know enough in any way about the fashion industry going into that movie,” she told Variety during a Know Their Lines segment where she was tested on her memory of scripts from her previous projects, The Devil Wears Prada included.

She joked, “I think I’d just been dressing like a teenage boy until that happened, and I learned a lot.”

Playing the role of fashion-forward "Runway" magazine assistant Emily was “a voyage of discovery,” she continued. “In every way. Not just about the industry itself but about style and the art of it and how important it is.”

Blunt, 40, also shared that the film has received an official stamp of approval from friends of hers that “have worked in the fashion industry,” who have told her that the story manages to capture the intensity of the business — which she was completely unaware of before. 

In the nearly two decades since the hit film was released, its leading ladies — Blunt, Hathaway, 41 and Streep, 74 — have all looked back fondly on the story about fashion media royalty.

The cast spoke to Entertainment Weekly in honor of its 15th anniversary in 2021, and Hathaway said of her character, modest fashion novice Sachs: “It spoke to me. It made me feel. It was about a subject that I take very seriously, but in such a wonderfully joyful and lighthearted way.”

When she was offered the part — she’d previously shared that she was the ninth pick for the lead role; Rachel McAdams was who the team had their sights set on — Hathaway recalled, “It was the easiest yes in the world.”

And Hathaway had Streep to thank — director David Frankel revealed that after watching Brokeback Mountain, Streep campaigned for Hathaway to get the part. “‘Yeah, this girl's great, and I think we'll work well together,’ ” he recalled Streep saying. 

Stanley Tucci played a fan-favorite role in the film, too, and told EW he was “cast at the 11th hour” but there was “no way” he would’ve said no.

“It was just such a beautiful piece of writing,” he reflected. “It was gorgeous. On a structural level, as a script, you could certainly visualize it as a film, but the script had pace to it, and it touched you emotionally. It's the perfect Hollywood movie.”

While it’s unlikely Miranda Priestley’s office will be revisited on the screen anytime soon — though Hathaway recently called the notion “tempting” — Hathaway and Blunt have both channeled their characters in some major fashion moments over the last few years.

At New York Fashion Week in Sept. 2022, the Oceans 8 star wore an outfit starkly reminiscent of one Andy Sachs wore in one of the film’s many iconic outfit montages, but insisted the similarity was “an accident.”

"I looked in the mirror and I thought, 'Oh that's funny, I wonder if anybody will notice?’ ” she recalled on Today several weeks later. 

She admitted, "It was kind of nuts wasn't it?”

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Blunt had a similar experience at the 2023 Met Gala, when she was asked by red carpet host Chloe Fineman, “Are you just one stomach flu away from your goal weight?” — an exact quote from Blunt’s character in the film. 

Blunt was all in for the joke as she replied, “I wish I was. I ate a pizza because I thought, ‘Well, I'm covered up, so I'll be all right,’ ” before adding, “And then I tried to put on my skinny pants…"