“They are best friends,” Tucci told E! News. “Having it sort of cross over with work was just, like, weird.”

Regarding Streep, she was simply thrilled to connect with the cast after fully embracing her role as the ruthless fashion editor Miranda Priestly during the first film.

During the initial table read, she barely spoke above a whisper, Tracie Thoms, who portrayed Lily, the loyal and straightforward best friend to Hathaway’s aspiring editor Andy Sachs, recounted to E! News back in 2021, causing everyone to lean in to hear her every word.

“She didn’t even look at Anne, except when she mentioned her sweater: ‘And then you got that hideous sweater from a Casual Corner’ or something like that,” Thoms added. “And I could feel Anne next to me just, like, wilt in her soul.”

Although Streep “loves the hang,” Hathaway revealed to E! News at the New York premiere on April 20, she felt that the cast “would just be a little sharper, stand a little taller” if they didn’t feel “so comfortable around her.”

However, having “made a huge sacrifice” for the success of the first film, Hathaway noted that she decided to tell the cast, “You guys can do it yourselves.”