One of the iconic comedy’s most quotable scenes involves Anne Hathaway’s character scrambling to secure copies of an unpublished “Harry Potter” installment.

Daniel Radcliffe recalls Harry Potter cast’s incredulous reaction to Devil Wears Prada advance-copies scene

One of the iconic comedy's most quotable scenes involves Anne Hathaway's character scrambling to secure copies of an unpublished "Harry Potter" installment.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 10, 2026 10:46 p.m. ET

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Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter; 'The Devil Wears Prada' star Meryl Streep. Credit:

Warner Bros; 20th Century Fox

*The Devil Wears Prada** *has been praised for its realistic depiction of the cutthroat fashion industry, but Daniel Radcliffe sees one scene as pure fantasy.

In the beloved workplace dramedy, Meryl Streep's imperious editor Miranda Priestley commands her shellshocked assistant Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) to secure copies of the next, still-unpublished entry in the *Harry Potter *book* *series, which the former boy-who-lived called out as fantasy during a recent appearance on *Bustle*'s *One Nightstand *podcast.

When asked if even he and his costars were treated to such privileged access while shooting the films, he told host Charlotte Owen, "No, you had to wait 'til drop day, as well. I remember in the movie *The Devil Wears Prada*, there's like a subplot that she has to find a version of Harry Potter before [it's published]. I remember we all saw that and were like, 'Good luck.'"

Radcliffe continued to explain that while *Harry Potter *publisher Bloomsbury was intensely protective of early exposures as the series unfolded in print, author J.K. Rowling did leak a detail here and there.

"I think Alan Rickman was the only person from the cast who was told anything in advance," he recalled, but he, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and the rest of *Potter*'s youth* *ensemble "certainly didn't get anything."

Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint in 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2' (2011).

Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.

Rowling told Radcliffe in 2000 that she briefed the actor behind Professor Severus Snap with some helpful advance character detail.

"I told him really early on that Snape had been in love with Lily," the mother of Radcliffe's titular character, the author revealed. "That's why he hated James," Harry's father, and "that's why he projected this this amount of dislike onto Harry."

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Radcliffe's costar Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in all eight *Potter *films, also was frustrated by the *Devil Wears Prada* advance-copy scene's suggestion that such a thing was even possible, she told *Nylon* (via *Digital Spy*).

"Actually, the most grating thing I've ever seen in a movie is in *The Devil Wears Prada*, when those two little kids get the *Harry Potter* books ahead of time," she told the magazine. "I was like, 'Are you kidding? That would never, ever, ever happen!'"

You can watch Radcliffe's full interview on the *One Nightstand *podcast above.

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