Meryl Streep is an incredible and versatile actor, but we were shocked to find that she was actually 'miserable' playing one of her most iconic roles of all time!
Brian Cox (Logan Roy in Succession) and Emily Blunt (Emily in The Devil Wears Prada) interviewed each other for a piece in Variety. In this interview, Emily Blunt spoke about working with Meryl Streep on the film The Devil Wears Prada and revealed that while the film was amazing for her career, she was working with someone who was rather 'miserable' throughout the shoot.
The actor said that starring in the film led to an 'extraordinary overnight shift in my life when that came out'. She then revealed that Meryl Streep (who played the fearsome Miranda Priestly) chose to Method Act during the shoot, which led her to be 'miserable' on set.
"She’s amazing and was slightly terrifying in that film. She said it was one of the first times she’s tried a bit of Method acting to sort of stay in her own zone. But it made her so miserable, playing Miranda," revealed Emily.
"Since then I've done two films with her [Into the Woods, 2014 and Mary Poppins, 2018] where she's a completely different, you know, wild, wonderful bird that she is. She is so unpredictable in the scene. It's what makes the screws tighten on you, being on the receiving end of it," said Emily.
The actors then spoke about the film and Mery's incredible career. Brian revealed that he loved the film and hopes to one day work with the Julie and Julia actress. "I loved it. And to work with one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, I so envy you. One of my ambitions, before I snuff it, is to work with Meryl," he said.
Brian even revealed that he may have put a kink in this co-star plan as he once told her that he didn't like her! Brian told Emily, "I met her once, and I said, 'I never liked you.' And she went, 'What?' I said, 'I never liked you because I was jealous.' How can anybody be that good?"
The pair also discussed method acting - the style of acting Meryl adopted for The Devil Wears Prada.
Brian said that he wasn't for or against method acting, but thought that not 'dwelling' on a character was key after a shoot. "There’s this whole debate about Method acting and all that. I’m all for whatever gets you through the day. But the great thing is how you transmit energy. If you hit it right, it just works. That’s the most important thing that we have as actors, that ability to go into something very quickly and come out of it. Not to dwell," he said.
Similarly, Emily added that she didn't care how other actors got into character, so long as it didn't disrupt her process. "When it comes to people’s methods, it’s whatever floats your boat as long as you don’t sink mine. Because mine’s quite simple and quite straightforward and not easy for me to talk about. It’s rather ethereal. I don’t know how it all happens. It just does," she said.
