The Devil Wears Prada 2: "The sequel is an honest reflection of what's happening in journalism, media and fashion"

Simone Ashley and Caleb Hearon were both eleven years old when The Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006.

Caleb, a closeted gay kid growing up in Missouri at the time, loved it immediately, and spent the aftermath compiling lists of colleges in and around New York City. His favourite moment, he has said, was when Nigel (played by Stanley Tucci) tells Andy (Anne Hathaway) what it was like to read Runway as a little boy. Twenty years later he's in the sequel, playing Charlie, an entry-level, desk-bound assistant written as someone who "read Runway with a flashlight in bed."

Ashley, meanwhile, plays Amari, Miranda Priestly's formidably chic new first assistant - the so-called "new Emily" - joining a returning cast that includes Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci.

"It was one of my favourite films, still is one of my favourite movies," Ashley says. "It makes me feel really empowered, watching both movies. Seeing how much Andy Sachs cares about the future of Runway and the future for journalists and then rising to the challenge - it's just really empowering."

"Simone nailed it," Hearon adds. "It's so empowering and exciting and aspirational. And being a part of the second one is so crazy. Stan (Tucci) was angry yesterday because they brought up that we were both 11 when the first one came out. We've had more time alive with this movie than we had without it."

 

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The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set against the backdrop of a declining print industry, as Runway Magazine is under threat from techbro owners who value digitalisation and the advice of cost-cutting consultants over quality journalism.

It'll be a hoot for fans of the first film, and the sequel glitters with designer outfits, snarky comments, trips to Lake Como, and celebrity cameos.

It’s not all superficial though. It's very much a movie about adapting to the passage of time; a world where the once-untouchable magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Streep) can no longer afford to be driven privately everywhere, has to heed to more modern HR regulations (she's no longer allowed to comment on employees' weight), and choose her battles more carefully.

"The sequel is an honest reflection of what's happening in journalism, media and fashion," Ashley says. "Budget cuts, digitalisation, who's being represented in the workplace. It's what's happening twenty years on."

It's also a film about ambition and the sacrifices made in its name. This thread runs through every character: from Caleb’s Charlie getting walked over just to get his foot in the door, to Miranda Priestly herself compromising her own standing to keep sponsors happy and her head above water.

"There's this really beautiful moment with Miranda where she talks about the cost of it all - what it costs to be somebody who is singularly great at what you do," Hearon says, careful not to give too much away. "That moment is such a beautiful rumination on ambition and the cost of high achievement and success. It's a choice we all have to make. You can't be great at your thing without giving up a lot of other things. The film has something really beautiful to say about it. As does the original."

Both are effusive about working with Streep, who by all accounts is the opposite of the character she plays.

"I doubt it's surprising to anyone who's ever worked with her, but I was just so charmed by how lovely she is," Hearon says. "It's so nice to work with someone who could really coast, who really has done it, is a legend already, and could take her foot off the gas — and she just gives a shit about process and people in such a beautiful way."

Ashley agrees:

"Naturally people want to know something really specifically interesting about her. But she is just such a kind, professional, wonderful, funny woman. And she's Meryl Streep - iconic in her work."

• The Devil Wears Prada 2 is out now. Watch the trailer below.