Simone Ashley is portrayed as a multi-hyphenate on the rise — writing her own dialogue, recording an EP between takes, and holding her own toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep. It’s a polished, aspirational image of effortless talent meeting opportunity.
Insiders know there was real fallout when Ashley’s role in Joseph Kosinski’s F1 was cut from the final film. Her fans flooded social media in protest. The question now: is Devil Wears Prada 2 her redemption arc, or just the next chapter of calculated career management?
Ashley wrote the “Who gives away Chanel?” line herself after sharing a personal story about once giving away Chanel shoes naively years ago. She moved to New York permanently for the Devil Wears Prada 2 shoot and recorded her EP “Songs I Wrote in New York” on nights and days off, wrapping film at 8pm and heading straight to Brooklyn studios.
Simone Ashley isn’t waiting for a seat at the table — she’s writing her own lines and hoping no one gives away Chanel before she gets there. The question is whether Tinseltown will let her keep it.
If Emily Blunt set the bar for imperious, couture-drenched fashion assistants 20 years ago in "The Devil Wears Prada," Simone Ashley just bulldozed right past it — with a line she wrote herself. As Amari Mari in David Frankel’s "The Devil Wears Prada 2," released Friday by 20th Century Studios, the "Bridgerton" breakout plays Miranda Priestly’s latest assistant and Britain’s newest ruler of Runway magazine. But here’s where it gets interesting: one of Mari’s sharpest, most quotable zingers came straight from Ashley’s own life.
During a wide-ranging interview with Variety published May 1, 2026, Ashley revealed she personally contributed the film’s now-infamous "Who gives away Chanel?" line. The original script read something closer to "not the Chanel boots," but Ashley had a real story — naively giving away a pair of Chanel shoes years ago — and pitched the rewrite herself. "I offered that line and it worked," she said, crediting Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci for teaching her that sincerity makes comedy land harder.
The result is a Gen-Z Miranda in-the-making who’s five steps ahead, unfazed by the most terrifying woman in fashion, and unafraid to draw blood with a single sentence. But let’s not pretend this was a smooth ride straight to the top. Ashley’s fandom — predominantly young women who see themselves in her — made headlines when her role was dramatically cut from Joseph Kosinski’s "F1," the high-profile racing film starring and produced by Brad Pitt.
Fans flooded social media with outrage, campaigning aggressively for her reinstatement. Speaking candidly about that experience, Ashley said she loved working with Kosinski, traveled to six or seven live Grand Prix races around the world, trained alongside real athletes, and learned "every job" on set under his mentorship. She described it as an honor — but the hurt from fans wasn’t imaginary.
It’s a pattern that seems to define Ashley’s career right now: show up, deliver something exceptional, then watch someone else decide your fate. Which makes her next move all the more telling. While filming "Devil Wears Prada 2" in New York City — a city she loved so much she moved there permanently and still lives there today — Ashley was simultaneously recording her debut EP.
Titled "Songs I Wrote in New York," the project captures what she calls "probably the happiest I've ever been." She described filming all day, wrapping at 8pm, then heading to a Brooklyn studio for night shifts, or recording on days off at studios uptown when producer Fraser T Smith was in town. The EP documents that specific chapter of her life: New York, the movie, the confidence, the creative explosion.
"I do think happiness is something that's worth documenting," she told Variety. Ashley has been training vocally since age seven — classically trained in opera with Italian piano and music theory under her belt before pivoting to soulful pop as a teenager. She signed with Universal recently under Marc Robinson's wing, and a debut album is expected later this year.
When asked point-blank whether she wants to star in a musical one day, she didn't hedge: "I would absolutely love that." She's manifesting it. So where does that leave her? With an iconic line she wrote herself, a loyal fanbase actively fighting for her roles, a music career launching from the same period as her biggest film to date, and a very clear message about who she is in this industry on her own terms. Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters Friday — and Amari Mari isn’t giving away anything.
