In the lead-up to the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2 on the 2026 movie schedule, there was a lot of hype and attention surrounding it and its production. Specifically, when the sequel was being filmed in New York City, it was frequently swarmed by paparazzi and fans. So, I had to ask Tracie Thoms, who plays Andy’s best friend Lily, what it was like to film in these conditions. Based on what she told me, it wasn’t for the faint of heart.
So, in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (which is getting great reviews, by the way), many scenes take place on the streets of New York City. Most of them involve Anne Hathaway’s Andy, and she specifically shares a moment with Tracie Thoms’ Lily on the street. So, having seen the paparazzi photos of this production, I asked Thoms what it felt like to be in the middle of all this attention. In response, she said:
Well, it was interesting because our first days, we were in my house, so we had fans just waiting outside on the sidewalk all day long. And I'm like, ‘How do they know we're here?’ A. And then B, they were just so excited, I think that the movie was happening. They just wanted a glimpse of Anne walking from the building to her car, because that’s all they were really were gonna get, but they were just happy to have that.
Last year, when The Devil Wears Prada 2 was in production, various photos of Hathaway and the cast walking around the city circulated on the internet. She also had a viral moment when she tumbled down the stairs while working on this film.
Article continues belowThe attention had to be intense, and according to Thoms, it was, as she explained:
But then the day we were shooting outside, I tried to mentally prepare myself for it, like, ‘Okay, tomorrow's gonna be paparazzi day, it's gonna be paparazzi day.’ And I've experienced a little bit of that shooting things in New York, but nothing like that. It was very rock star feeling. It was very like, there were fans across the street. There were fans right behind the cameras, you know, we're trying to clear those guys out.
The fans were everywhere, according to the 9-1-1 actress, and it was a lot to take in. However, she made sure to note that by the time she got to her exterior scene in New York City, Hathaway had been dealing with all this for a while, and she was a pro:
And Anne was used to it by this point when we shot it. So she was just like, ‘I know this comes with it. I know it's part of it, and it's going to be okay.’
While it’s part of filming this 2026 sequel, it’s not exactly a normal filming experience. To that point, Thoms told me those moments took “extra focus” to do, because there was so much going on behind and around the cameras:
But it was just a matter of – it took extra focus to shoot those scenes and knowing there could be paparazzi pictures everywhere online the next day, or even that day, and there were.
When the sequel was filming outside, photographers got images of the actors in costume, meaning there were multiple outfit spoilers (like Miranda’s gorgeous red gown) because of the attention. Along with that, I’d imagine it’s simply hard to film with cameras constantly going off and fans screaming.
Thoms also told me that it was “interesting” to see so many people with their phones out as they tried to capture these BTS moments for themselves:
And it's so interesting that everybody has their phones out, and you're thinking like, ‘Well, I mean, if you're all filming, none of you are actually experiencing it. You're just filming it.’ You know what I mean? Everybody has their own version of it on their phone, when they can probably just find somebody who has it and just be there. But everybody has to have it on their phone. It's just an interesting phenomenon that is everyday life now.
However, it wasn’t just the spectators who made filming in NYC hard. Remember, the city is also the city, and the production had to deal with things like construction people using a jackhammer. According to the Rent actress, someone on the crew literally “had to negotiate with the construction people” to stop that noise. So, as she said earlier, to film in these locations, it required the cast to bring “an extra layer of focus.”
They were able to bring their A-game amid the chaos, though, and now we have a stellar sequel because of it. So, while I’m bummed the cast had to go through this filming experience, having New York City as the backdrop of The Devil Wears Prada 2 felt vital. Plus, while the attention was a lot, it also proves just how iconic this film franchise is.
