The Muppets' larger-than-life Miss Piggy... Crazed cannibal Hannibal Lecter... Ariel of the seven seas... These are the names of characters you'd probably NEVER think to associate. But they all share one thread in common: they're all inspired by REAL people! Films are meant to be experiential events. Who doesn't love being transported to another world where the on-screen performances make you laugh, cry, and perch at the edge of your seat with excitement?! But with those feelings, we ask this: has a faint feeling of familiarity ever washed over you? A performance that for some vague reason sounds an alarm somewhere in your mind? Perhaps because it reminds you of an IRL personality? Well, you're not crazy. Because SEVERAL of pop culture's most beloved characters truly ARE inspired by real people! And after reading this list, you'll never be able to watch some of your favorite films the same way again!!! Related: Ranking The Past Sexiest Men Alive! Who's On Top - And Who Came Last?? Contents [hide] 1 Miranda Priestly 2 Miss Piggy 3 Rocky Balboa 4 Ron Burgundy 5 Ariel & Ursula the Sea Witch 6 Dr. Evil & Jack Donaghy 7 Lucious Lyon 8 Vincent Chase 9 Hannibal Lecter 10 Patrick Bateman Miranda Priestly (c) 20th Century Fox/YouTube Miranda Priestly, the fearsome fashion boss brought to life by Meryl Streep in 2006's The Devil Wears Prada, wasn't conjured out of thin air... It's famously known she was inspired by Vogue legend Anna Wintour! Fun fact: The Devil Wears Prada was first a book scribed in 2003 by Lauren Weisberger - who previously served as Anna's assistant at Vogue! OMG, right?! (c) Vogue/YouTube Last year, Anna even reflected on going into the movie blind. She told New Yorker editor David Remnick: "I went to the premiere wearing Prada, completely having no idea what the film was going to be about. And I think that the fashion industry were very sweetly concerned for me about the film, that it was going to paint me in some kind of difficult light." She went on to agree with Remnick that Miranda was a "cartoonish" version of her - a "caricature." But she still enjoyed the film nonetheless: "I found it highly enjoyable. It was very funny. Miuccia [Prada] and I talk about it a lot, and I say to her: 'Well, it was really good for you.'" On the performances, she added: "[The film] had a lot of humor to it. It had a lot of wit. It had Meryl Streep. I mean, it was Emily Blunt, [and] they were all amazing. In the end, I thought it was a fair shot." What a great sport! We wonder what she'll think when The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters next year... Miss Piggy (c) ABC/YouTube Miss Piggy's iconic glamour doesn't come from nowhere! In fact, her designer had a whole career to look to for inspiration! According to Muppet designer Bonnie Erickson, she's directly based on 1950s actress/jazz singer Peggy Lee - who never failed to dazzle! (c) Peggy Lee/YouTube In 2008, Erickson told the Smithsonian Magazine: "My mother used to live in North Dakota where Peggy Lee sang on the local radio station before she became a famous jazz singer." She even revealed that when she first created the beloved Muppet character, her name was "Miss Piggy Lee" - "as both a joke and an homage." Rocky Balboa (c) MGM/UA Entertainment Co./YouTube Sylvester Stallone may have been inspired to create the first Rocky movie after the famous 1975 brawl between Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali, but the character of Rocky Balboa himself is 100 percent based on 1950s boxer Rocco Francis "Rocky Marciano" Marchegiano. During an appearance on The Rich Elsen Show in 2022, Sly admitted: "Let me be totally transparent, as they say. Rocky Marciano was the basis for the film." However, when he went to pitch the idea to the studio in the '70s, no one knew of Marciano... so he used the "underdog" story of the Wepner-Ali fight, which had generated astronomical hype months before, to sell his idea! Listen to him talk about it (below): Ron Burgundy (c) DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount+ Everyone's favorite Anchorman Ron Burgundy is a hilarious caricature of mid-70s reporters, but did you know he's actually based on a very REAL anchorman? In 2013, Will Ferrell sat down with the New York Times and revealed the famous character's origins are derived from Mort Crim. He had apparently watched a documentary about Jessica Savitch, one of the first female news anchors, and was taken off guard by Crim's critical assessment of her: "He literally said the line: 'You have to remember, back then I was a real male chauvinist pig. I was not nice to her.'" View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mort Crim (@mortcrim) If you've seen the movie, you'll know it's about the same thing... Veronica Corningstone (masterfully played by Christina Applegate) joins Ron's news team, which he finds it difficult to adjust to. Crim himself even opened up about it in a 2013 interview with ABC News! Wild! Ariel & Ursula the Sea Witch (c) Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/Disney+ The Little Mermaid is undoubtedly a