Rise to Fame
She grew up with a severe stutter so bad she couldn't read aloud in class. A teacher suggested she try acting. Turns out she could speak fluently when she wasn't being herself. That discovery got her on stage alongside Judi Dench at 18. The career pivot was fast: The Devil Wears Prada (2006) gave her a supporting role that upstaged half the cast, and Meryl Streep said she was 'the best young actress I've worked with in some time, perhaps ever.' The movie made her a name. The stutter made her an actress.
In the Spotlight
Oppenheimer crossed $950 million worldwide, and her turn as Kitty Oppenheimer got her an Oscar nomination on maybe 20 minutes of screen time. She didn't win, but the calculus shifted. Coming up: The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026), a Steven Spielberg event film the same summer, an untitled Martin Scorsese project with Leonardo DiCaprio, and an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. Three major directors in one slate is either a sign of real momentum or overextension. The answer depends on whether any of it actually lands.
Side Notes
She was cast as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 before Scarlett Johansson was, and had to drop the role over a scheduling conflict with Gulliver's Travels. Peggy Carter in Captain America fell through the same way. She was also offered a music deal at sixteen, and had planned on becoming a UN translator before acting took over. Her brother-in-law is Stanley Tucci, who met her sister Felicity at Emily's own wedding in 2010 and married her two years later. Even her personal life has good casting.