Hathaway Called Yoo Jae-suk 'Full of Swag' on Korean TV

Anne Hathaway walked onto the set of tvN's You Quiz on the Block and stopped. "Is that the person in the polka-dot suit from the commercial?" she asked, looking directly at host Yoo Jae-suk before the conversation had even started. The room went electric. Yoo, visibly surprised, confirmed he had indeed filmed a bibim noodle (비빔면) advertisement. "I thought he was really cool," Hathaway said. "Full of swag."

The moment aired on April 15, 2026, and Korea has been talking about it ever since. Hathaway and Meryl Streep had arrived as guests of the long-running variety program to promote their upcoming film, The Devil Wears Prada 2 — the sequel to the 2006 fashion-world satire that made both of their careers household names on six continents, including, as it turns out, South Korea.

How Anne Hathaway Recognized Yoo Jae-suk

The bibim noodle ad detail would have been enough on its own. But what made the exchange go viral was the specificity of Hathaway's recognition. She didn't say she vaguely knew who Yoo Jae-suk was. She said she had been channel surfing the night before, saw an advertisement featuring a man in a polka-dot suit, and thought he was genuinely cool. Then she walked into the studio and immediately connected the dots.

Yoo, laughing, said he wished he had brought a bottle of the product. The two shook hands. Hathaway told the audience she had thought he was "full of swag" — a phrase that, coming from a Hollywood lead actress in the middle of a Korean variety show, landed exactly as you would expect it to.

The clip spread quickly across social media. For Korean viewers, watching one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars recognize their national MC not from a film or television appearance, but from a noodle commercial, was a combination of absurd and deeply satisfying. The comment sections did not hold back. "This is the most Korean thing that has ever happened," one widely shared post read.

The Secret Meryl Streep Kept for 20 Years

The conversation turned more substantial when Meryl Streep revealed, for perhaps the first time in a major interview, the method behind her dynamic with Hathaway on the original film.

Streep had played Miranda Priestly — the imperious, glacially controlled editor of a fashion magazine — opposite Hathaway's wide-eyed assistant, Andy Sachs. The relationship between the two characters is one of barely contained professional terror. What the audience didn't know until now is that the dynamic was, to a significant degree, built on real distance.

"It was intentional. If I socialized with the other actors, we'd end up drinking coffee and laughing together. Then when we walked onto the set, it would be very hard to create that atmosphere of authority,"

Streep explained. So she kept Hathaway at arm's length — not out of hostility, but as a deliberate craft decision.

Hathaway's reaction to hearing this, live on air, was one of the episode's most memorable moments. "I've never said this before," she began, "but looking back, I'm so glad Meryl kept her distance. I was 22. What did I know about acting? I was so easily influenced by what was happening around me. Meryl's choice to separate herself was genuinely one of the most helpful things that happened to me on that film."

She continued: "The moment Meryl appeared, I immediately felt Andy's emotions. My mind snapped into focus. Don't make mistakes. Stay quiet. Don't get in the way. That was the feeling. Meryl, in the form of Miranda, opened a path for me to go deeper into the character."

Streep, visibly moved, responded: "You always did well, didn't you?" Hathaway laughed. "I was absolutely frozen. But that frozen feeling was exactly right for Andy."

The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Twenty Years in the Making

The reason for their Korea visit was, technically, the sequel. The Devil Wears Prada 2 arrives approximately 20 years after the original became a cultural touchstone — a film so embedded in popular consciousness that its wardrobe, its dialogue, and the particular quality of Streep's performance have been referenced and quoted in ways that few comedies of its era managed to sustain.

Streep spoke about the sequel with a mix of humor and genuine sentiment. When Yoo noted that it was hard to believe 20 years had passed, she laughed and said she felt every one of them. "We'd been talking about doing another film since around 2009," she said. "But we had to wait for the right moment. The characters needed to have lived more of their lives for the story to feel real."

She reflected on what waiting had given the film: "Andy was able to build her own life. The world around Miranda has changed. Now Miranda can't see anything without her glasses." She paused, smiling. "We waited 20 years, and I think it was worth it. Coming back after this long — that's not a common thing in this industry. It was a wonderful experience."

Hathaway spoke about returning to the role with similar warmth. At 22 during the original shoot, she described herself as an actor still learning what she was capable of. Coming back to the character now, two decades and several career-defining performances later, is a different proposition entirely.

What It Means That They Came Here First

The choice to visit Korea for the promotional tour — and specifically to appear on You Quiz on the Block, hosted by Yoo Jae-suk — is not a detail that passes without significance. Yoo's show has become, over the past decade, a preferred destination for international artists who want to speak to Korean audiences in a format that rewards sincerity over spectacle. Past guests have included figures from sport, science, entertainment, and public life across multiple countries.

That Hathaway and Streep chose it as a venue for some of their most candid reflections on the original film — Streep's method acting confession, Hathaway's account of being "frozen" by her co-star — suggests they understood the format well. These were not talking points. These were things said in the presence of a host known for putting his guests at ease, in a country where the original film remains deeply beloved.

The noodle ad moment was the joke that will travel fastest. But the substance of the conversation — about craft, distance, time, and return — was the part that earned the longer attention. Korea gave Hollywood's two most daunting co-stars a room where they finally explained each other. It turned out to be the right room for the job.