--- title: Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Miranda Priestly description: According to Blunt, Meryl Streep's inspiration for the 'Devil Wears Prada' character of Miranda Priestly is not who we all think it was. canonical: https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-20T16:23:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:11.558Z og:title: Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Miranda Priestly og:description: She's not actually based on Anna Wintour og:url: https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Miranda Priestly twitter:description: She's not actually based on Anna Wintour twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Who Meryl Streep Modeled Miranda Priestly After > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Mary Poppins Returns Official Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): Mary Poppins Returns Official Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XzXrKILI.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2018-11-28. Mary Poppins Returns Official Trailer_  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 20, 2018 4:23 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 20, 2018 4:23 PM UTC Up until now, many people have been under the impression that [Meryl Streep](http://time.com/5391414/meryl-streep-us-open/)‘s character in _The Devil Wears Prada_ — the notoriously discerning top fashion editor [Miranda Priestly](http://time.com/2801704/maleficent-villains-wicked-witch-catwoman/item/miranda-priestly-devil-wears-prada/) — was modeled after _Vogue_‘s [Anna Wintour](http://time.com/5272579/stephen-colbert-anna-wintour-met-gala-2018/). But [_Mary Poppins Returns_](http://time.com/5484129/review-mary-poppins-returns-blunt/) star [Emily Blunt](http://time.com/5483158/emily-blunt-john-krasinski-first-date/), who played Streep’s hard-working assistant in the beloved 2006 movie, is here to set the record straight. In a new interview [with NPR’s Terry Gross](https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=677643146), Blunt reflected on getting the gig in the movie, which helped put her on the Hollywood map. When Gross mentioned Streep’s character as a version of Anna Wintour, though, Blunt had to make a clarification. “Although Meryl didn’t actually base it on Anna Wintour — well, she told Anna that,” Blunt said. “She based it on two men in Hollywood that she knew — who will remain nameless, but I know who they are.” Blunt also recalled the audition process for that game-changing role; it turns out it was a very last-minute chance. “I remember I was out in LA, which I found altogether overwhelming anyway because it was very new. And I was 22, I think,” she said. --- > “” --- While _The Devil Wears Prada_ was the first time that Blunt and Streep teamed up onscreen, they would then go on to work together in both [_Into the Woods_](http://time.com/3647510/review-into-the-woods-a-disney-musical-for-adults-of-all-ages/) and the new _Mary Poppins Returns_, which features Streep as Cousin Topsy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/"},"headline":"Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Who Meryl Streep Modeled Miranda Priestly After","datePublished":"2018-12-20T16:23:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:11.558Z","description":"Apparently Anna Wintour was not Meryl Streep's inspiration","url":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","celebrities","meryl streep","emily blunt"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/","name":"Emily Blunt Sets the Record Straight About Who Meryl Streep Modeled Miranda Priestly After"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mary Poppins Returns Official Trailer","description":"Mary Poppins Returns Official Trailer","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XzXrKILI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-11-28T22:20:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XzXrKILI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5485390/meryl-streep-miranda-priestly/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```