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Meryl Streep says working moms aren't 'selfish' – 'We're human beings'

Spoiler alert! We're discussing major details about the ending of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (in theaters now). Stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to know what happens.

You can thankMeryl Streepfor the most emotional moment of "The Devil Wears Prada 2."

In the long-awaited sequel, fashion's high priestess Miranda Priestly (Streep) successfully saves Runway magazine: She finds an affluent new buyer, Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu), for the flailing publication after an attempted coup by her former assistant, Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt).

The film ends with Miranda and features editor Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in the back of a car, mulling over the uncertain future of journalism at large. Mid-conversation, Miranda reveals that she knows Andy has been writing a tell-all book about her time at Runway. Andy declares that she no longer wants to, but Miranda insists that she move forward with her exposé, ruefully lamenting the moments she missed of her twin daughters growing up.

"You should write it, and you should keep all the juicy bits in," Miranda tells Andy. "How impatient I am; how demanding and imperious and how much of my children's lives I've missed. Just put it all in there, because people should know there's a cost. But boy, I love working. I really do, don't you? I just love it."

It's a scene that carried weight for Streep, 76, a three-time Oscar winner who shares three daughters and a son with Don Gummer (they split in 2017). The Hollywood icon ad-libbed that piece of dialogue herself.

“That line wasn't in there,” Streep tells USA TODAY, seated with Hathaway on a recent afternoon. “That was something that I threw in because I just do love working. I do love working as an actor. And I thought, for women, it's the way that Miranda shares that insight: It's a little sneaky, like, ‘Don't you sneak a cigarette every once in a while?’ Because it's still frowned upon that you're going to try to do the selfish thing that is rewarding to yourself and [also] want to have a family. I mean, people do. I did. I did want to have both.

“We're human beings,” Streep adds. “We should be able to do that and model for our children – our boys and girls – that it’s great to be creative, and to be out in the world and doing our very level best, you know?”

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As Miranda Priestly, Meryl Streep is fiercely committed to her job in "The Devil Wears Prada 2."

Hathaway, 43, has two young sons with her husband, Adam Shulman. The Oscar-winning actress has been working steadily for more than 25 years, with breakthrough roles in 2001's "The Princess Diaries" and 2006's original "The Devil Wears Prada."

“It's really amazing to be able to care for yourself economically,” Hathaway says. “I have been working since I was a teenager and I've been in charge of my own finances for that same amount of time, which means that I've signed every single check in my life as an adult. I've paid my rent. I put myself through college. All of those things, I took on that financial responsibility.”

As a result, “my life feels very much like my own,” Hathaway says. “I don't have to ask anyone for things. And I have no problems working to earn that freedom. I like it.” For many women, “that option has only been available for a few decades, which is crazy. So I don't really want to waste this opportunity.”

Anne Hathaway is determined to make something of her position at Runway in "The Devil Wears Prada 2."

The month-long "Devil Wears Prada 2” promotional tour took both A-listers across the globe, with stops in Mexico City, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.

In each city, girls would come up to them “and say, ‘This meant so much to me,’ ” Streep recalls. “I thought of it as a sort of frothy, fun movie, but it had some other kind of pull for young people, and that's very heartening. That means that it's [resonated] in a lot of different cultures. And a lot of different cultures are in different places, in regard to how they feel about women working.”

Amid the release of "The Devil Wears Prada 2," see the stars' looks from 20 years ago and now, beginning here with Anne Hathaway.

Hathaway opted for a stunning red dress in both 2006 and 2026, where she opted for a custom Louis Vuitton by Nicolas Ghesquière strapless tea-length gown. She filmed the role of Andy Sachs in her early 20s.