Meryl Streep very nearly didn’t play Miranda Priestly.

Speaking on “Today” as part of a group interview with her “The Devil Wears Prada 2” castmates Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, Streep discussed her decision to sign on for the 2006 original.

“I knew it was going to be a hit,” Streep told host Jenna Bush Hager (who herself has a cameo in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”). “I read the script — the script was great. They called me up, and they made an offer, and I said ‘No. I’m not going to do it.'” Streep said she foresaw the film’s success — and wanted to be paid accordingly. “I wanted to see if I doubled my ask, and they went right away and said ‘Sure.'”

Recalling the decision, Streep said, “I’m 56 years [old] — it took me this long to understand that I could do that! I was sure of it. I was sure it would be a hit. And they needed me, I felt. And I wanted it, but if they didn’t want to do that, I was okay. Because I’m old — I’m 56, I was ready to retire.”

It was a lesson well learned (and that Streep may have applied to her performance as the steely editor-in-chief onscreen). Streep may have been ready to retire pre-“Prada,” but the years following it were astonishingly productive, including her third Oscar win, for “The Iron Lady,” in 2012. “The Devil Wears Prada,” for which Streep was Oscar-nominated, would end up catapulting Streep to a new echelon of fame as a box-office draw, with subsequent movies like “Mamma Mia!” and “It’s Complicated” continuing a hot streak. And now, the sequel, coming 20 years after the original, represents another potential comeback, as it’s Streep’s first live-action movie performance in five years.

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