Emily Blunt says Meryl Streep was 'slightly terrifying' on 'Devil Wears Prada' set because she stayed in character as Miranda, even when it was making her 'miserable'

• Meryl Streep was "slightly terrifying" to work with on "The Devil Wears Prada," Emily Blunt told Variety.
• Streep tried to stay in character as the intimidating fashion editor Miranda Priestly while on set.
• But Blunt said that Streep was "miserable" while keeping up the act.

If you took anything away from "The Devil Wears Prada," it's that working for the fictional fashion editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly is a terrible and thankless job. 

Apparently, staying in character to play her was nearly just as awful an experience for Meryl Streep.

In a conversation with "Succession" star Brian Cox in Variety's Actors on Actors series, Streep's "Devil Wears Prada" costar Emily Blunt called Streep "amazing," but admitted that the star was "slightly terrifying" on the set of the 2006 dramedy.

"She said it was one of the first times she's tried Method acting. But it made her so miserable, playing Miranda," said Blunt, who played Priestly's no-nonsense senior assistant, Emily.

Streep admitted in Entertainment Weekly's oral history of the film in 2021 that going Method was a "horrible" experience for her, especially because she deliberately isolated herself from her castmates so she wouldn't have to ice them out while in character on set as the cutthroat Priestly.

"I was [miserable] in my trailer. I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed!" she told EW. "I said, 'Well, it's the price you pay for being boss!' That's the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!"

Anne Hathaway, who played young assistant Andrea Sachs, agreed that Streep was "intimidating" on set but added to EW that she "always felt cared for" by Streep.

"I knew that whatever she was doing to create that fear, I appreciated [because] I also knew she was watching out for me," she said.