Miss Universe Contestant Asks Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway the Question That Stumped Her in the 2017 Pageant

Staff AuthorFri, April 24, 2026 at 3:39 PM UTC

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Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway pose with former Miss Universe 2017 finalist Maria Poonlertlarp.Credit: Maria Poonlertlarp/Instagram -

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are getting a taste of pageant life

While participating in press for the Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere in Tokyo on Monday, April 20, a former Miss Universe 2017 finalist interviewed the film's two leading ladies

While chatting, Maria Poonlertlarp asked the two women to answer one of the questions she had been asked nine years ago at the pageant final, which she admitted stumped her at the time

While Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs and Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly rule the fashion world, the two actresses are getting a taste of what it's like to be a pageant queen.While participating in press interviews in Tokyo before the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Monday, April 20, Hathaway and Streep sat down to chat with a former Miss Universe finalist, Maria Poonlertlarp, who interviewed the two women on behalf of Thai production company Farose.Poonlertlarp was crowned Miss Universe Thailand in 2017 and later competed in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant. Though she didn't take home the title, Poonlertlarp made the top five. While speaking with Hathaway and Streep in Tokyo, the beauty queen reflected on one of the questions she had been asked in 2017 as she competed for the global pageant title.

Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) and Andie Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in 20th Century Studios' 'The Devil Wears Prada 2.'Credit: Macall Polay/20th Century Studios

"I was hoping that maybe you could help me answer a question that has haunted me since 2017," Poonlertlarp said."On the Miss Universe stage, I was asked one of the final five questions, which was, 'In your opinion, what is the most important social movement of your generation and why?'" she recalled of the question that then-pageant host Steve Harvey had asked her."And I was thinking at the time, 'Oh man, I have no idea.' It really stunned me. Of course, I had to say something. And so I was thinking if it was Andy on stage or Miranda on stage, would they have something to say to this?"The two actresses' answers came in perfect pageant form.

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"I think for my generation and as a woman, the changing role of women in the last part of the last century —which is my youth — that was profound," Streep said in reply. "When I entered college, women were expected to be nurses or teachers. No one thought about being an actress. I thought I'd be an interpreter at the UN."Continuing, she reflected on the start of her own career: "When I first came to Japan for interviews 35 years ago, all the journalists were men. And now we've gone through so many roundtables and all the journalists are women with with men too. That integration of women into the working day is most profound one for me."

Miss Thailand 2017 Maria Poonlertlarp competes during the 2017 Miss Universe Pageant at The Axis at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Nov. 26, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nev.Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty

Hathaway, who was recently named PEOPLE's World's Most Beautiful cover star, had an equally spot-on answer."A part of me thinks the most profound one hasn't totally happened yet," she began. "I think we've seen shades of them all coming together.""But, when I think of an effective social movement that occurred in America in my lifetime, it was marriage equality," she then said. "That certainly made a huge impact in my life. My older brother's gay, and so it affected my family directly."Continuing, Hathaway explained that when she thought about "what it means to acknowledge the full humanity" she felt as though it's for the "courts to catch up to our inherent worth and what we have.""And just because legally or technically those rights are not honored yet, that doesn't mean we don't have them," she said. "And so that was something that gave me a tremendous amount of hope to see the courts catch up to where human beings actually were."Hathaway and Streep have been busy with the press tour for the highly anticipated sequel to the hit 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada, which hits theaters on May 1, and features a host of returning cast members, including Streep, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.It's also one of a whopping five movies starring Hathaway this year, which include Mother Mary (currently showing in select theaters), The Odyssey, Verity and The End of Oak Street.Returning to her iconic role of Andy Sachs 20 years later with her original costars “was just beautiful," Hathaway told PEOPLE in her World's Most Beautiful interview. “Sometimes you’re like, ‘I wish I could go back to that moment knowing what I know now.’ So for me this was the chance to actually be with the same people again, step back into that world, but with a little bit more perspective.”

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