Madison Vanderberg
November 19, 2018 12:29 pm

The Devil Wears Prada is a deeply quotable film (“Why is no one ready?” “Florals? For spring?” “Can you please spell ‘Gabbana?'”), but the most iconic scene is probably when Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly delivers the “it’s not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean,” speech at Anne Hathaway’s Andy. The “cerulean” monologue is perfection, but would you believe it was originally supposed to be about a plaid skirt?

In the scene, Hathaway laughs at the editors as they fuss over what she thinks are two nearly identical blue belts. Streep delivers a cool clapback about the actual shade of the belt, the machinations of the fashion industry, and Hathaway’s adorably futile attempts to escape sartorial influence.

Apparently, there was a lot of back and forth about the article of clothing Streep would criticize until they landed on a blue sweater. But then they had to decide on a shade of blue, and it was Streep who made the final call. “I had also sent Meryl a list of blues: lapis, azure, cerulean. She picked cerulean,” McKenna added.

Interestingly, Streep’s impressive speech about Yves Saint Laurent and Oscar de la Renta using cerulean on the runway was entirely fabricated. “A lot of the fashion stuff I just made up because none of it was going to be real; it just sounded real,” McKenna added.

For your enjoyment, here is Streep’s iconic monologue in full:

Can you imagine a world where Meryl Streep didn’t utter the phrase “It’s actually cerulean?” We can’t either.