The Devil Wears Prada producer says people thought they were "crazy" for casting Meryl Streep – because they didn't think she was funny

Dec. 8, 2023

“She has been funny and they were wrong”

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Meryl Streep may have received an Oscar nomination for her performance inThe Devil Wears Prada, but her casting was initially an unpopular choice.

“People thought we were crazy,” Wendy Finerman, one of the movie’s producers, recently told theHollywood Gold podcast(viaThe Hollywood Reporter). “I mean, I had people call me up and say, ‘Are you out of your mind? She’s never been funny a day in her life.'”

At that point in her career, Streep was perhaps best known for her early career roles in more serious projects like Sophie’s Choice, The Deer Hunter, and Out of Africa – but she’d played less straight before, too, in films like Death Becomes Her and Adaptation.

Finerman continued: “She has been funny and they were wrong… But this was clearly a different kind of world for her,” adding that her casting “was part of the fun of the unexpected.”

In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep plays Miranda Priestly, the powerful editor-in-chief of fictional prestigious fashion magazine Runway. Anne Hathaway plays her new assistant Andy, who she treats poorly, while Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci also star as other Runway employees. Streep was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress in 2007, as well as being nominated for a BAFTA and winning a Golden Globe.

Streep was last seen in another comedic role: she appeared in Only Murders in the Building season 3 on Hulu as Loretta, a Broadway actor and love interest of Martin Short’s character Oliver.

The Devil Wears Prada is currently streaming on Max in the US andDisney Plusin the UK. For more, check out our picks of the otherbest movies on Disney Plusto add to your watch list.

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I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.

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