The Devil Wears Prada (film)

''The Devil Wears Prada'' is a 2006 American comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman. The screenplay, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, is based on Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. The film adaptation stars Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a powerful fashion magazine editor, and Anne Hathaway as Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a college graduate who goes to New York City and lands a job as Priestly's co-assistant. Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci co-star as co-assistant Emily Charlton and art director Nigel Kipling, respectively. Simon Baker and Adrian Grenier play pivotal supporting roles.

In 2003, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to a film adaptation of Weisberger's novel before it was completed for publication; the project was not greenlit until Streep was cast in the lead role. Principal photography lasted 57 days, primarily taking place in New York City from October to December 2005. Additional filming was done in Paris.

After premiering at the LA Film Festival on June 22, 2006, ''The Devil Wears Prada'' was theatrically released in the United States on June 30. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Streep's performance being singled out for praise, thus earning her many award nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Hathaway and Blunt also drew favorable reviews and nominations for their performances. The film grossed over $326 million worldwide, against its $41 million budget, and was the 12th highest-grossing film worldwide in 2006.

Although the film is set in the fashion world, and references well-known establishments and people within that industry, most designers and other fashion notables avoided appearing as themselves for fear of displeasing US ''Vogue'' editor Anna Wintour, who is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Priestly. Still, many allowed their clothes and accessories to be used in the film, making it one of the most expensively costumed films in history. Wintour later overcame her initial skepticism, saying she liked the film and Streep in particular.

Plot

Andy Sachs is an aspiring journalist newly graduated from Northwestern University. Despite her ridicule of the fashion industry, she lands a job as junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of ''Runway'' magazine, a job that "millions of girls would kill for". Andy plans to put up with Miranda's excessive demands and humiliating treatment for one year in the hopes of getting a job as a reporter or writer somewhere else.

At first, Andy fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her gossipy, fashion-forward co-workers, especially Miranda's senior assistant, Emily Charlton. After a dress trial meeting in which Miranda berates her in front of the entire team, she approaches art director Nigel to help her learn the ropes in the world of fashion. She begins to dress stylishly and makes an effort to accommodate all of Miranda's whims and fancies, which creates problems in her relationship with her boyfriend Nate, who is frustrated that she is always at her new boss's beck and call.

Miranda notices Andy's changed appearance and commitment and begins to give her more responsibility and complicated tasks to handle. Slowly but surely, Andy becomes more glamorous and absorbs the ''Runway'' philosophy. She gradually outperforms Emily at her job. Emily, meanwhile, is consumed with the thought of attending Paris Fashion Week as Miranda's assistant, which motivates her to attempt extreme diets which damage her health. When Emily is feeling too unwell to remember important details about the guests at a charity benefit, Andy steps in to save Miranda from embarrassment and is rewarded by being asked to replace Emily as Miranda's assistant at the Paris Fashion Week. Miranda tells Andy to inform Emily that she will not be going to Paris, but when Andy calls Emily, Emily is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital. Andy then tells the recovering Emily the news and Emily is furious. When Andy tells Nate the news, he is angered that she has become what she once ridiculed and they break up.

In Paris, Andy learns from Miranda about her impending divorce. Later that night, Nigel tells Andy that he has accepted a job as creative director with rising designer James Holt. Andy spends the night with an attractive young writer, Christian Thompson, who tells her that Miranda is to be replaced by Jacqueline Follet as editor of ''Runway''. Feeling bad for Miranda, Andy attempts to warn her but Miranda sends her away.

At a luncheon later that day, Miranda announces Jacqueline as the new creative director to Holt, leaving Andy and Nigel stunned. Later in the car, Miranda explains to Andy that she already knew of the plot to replace her and sacrificed Nigel to keep her own job. When Andy is repulsed, Miranda points out that Andy did the same with Emily by stepping over her and agreeing to go to Paris. When they arrive at their destination, Andy walks away from Miranda and throws her cell phone into the fountain of the Place de la Concorde and returns to New York.

Sometime later, Andy meets up with Nate and apologizes. Nate tells Andy he has a new job as a sous-chef in Boston, and they reconcile. The same day, Andy is interviewed and accepted to work at a major New York publication company. The editor recounts how he called ''Runway'' for a reference, and was informed by Miranda that while Andy was one of the biggest disappointments she ever had as an assistant, he would be an idiot not to hire her. Andy then calls Emily and reconciles with her by offering her the dresses she obtained in Paris. While passing the ''Runway'' office building in the afternoon, Andy makes eye contact with Miranda as she gets into a car. Although Andy waves, Miranda does not acknowledge her but smiles to herself once she is seated in the car.

Cast

* Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly
* Anne Hathaway as Andrea "Andy" Sachs
* Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton
* Stanley Tucci as Nigel Kipling
* Simon Baker as Christian Thompson
* Adrian Grenier as Nate Cooper
* Gisele Bündchen as Serena
* Tracie Thoms as Lily
* Rich Sommer as Doug
* Daniel Sunjata as James Holt
* James Naughton as Stephen
* Colleen Dengel as Caroline Priestly
* Suzanne Dengel as Cassidy Priestly
* David Marshall Grant as Richard Sachs
* Tibor Feldman as Irv Ravitz
* Rebecca Mader as Jocelyn
* Alyssa Sutherland as Clacker
* Ines Rivero as Clacker at elevator
* Stéphanie Szostak as Jacqueline Follet
* David Callegati as Massimo
* Paul Keany as St. Regis Doorman

Cameos

* Valentino Garavani
* Giancarlo Giammetti
* Carlos de Souza
* Bridget Hall
* Lauren Weisberger as the twins' nanny
* Robert Verdi as a fashion journalist in Paris who interviews Miranda
* Heidi Klum
* Jen Taylor as Lou
* Nigel Barker

Production

Director David Frankel and producer Wendy Finerman had originally read ''The Devil Wears Prada'' in book proposal form. It would be Frankel's second theatrical feature, and his first in over a decade. He, cinematographer Florian Ballhaus and costume designer Patricia Field, drew heavily on their experience in making ''Sex and the City''.

Frankel recalls the whole experience as having high stakes for those involved, since for himself and the others behind the camera it was the biggest project they had yet attempted, with barely adequate resources. "We knew we were on very thin ice," he told ''Variety'' for a 2016 article on the film's 10th anniversary. "It was possible this could be the end of the road for us."

Weisberger is widely believed to have based Miranda on Anna Wintour, the powerful editor of ''Vogue'', for whom she herself had once worked as a personal assistant. Fear of what Wintour might do in retribution for any visible cooperation with the production posed obstacles, not just in the fashion industry but also in Hollywood.

Pre-production

Fox bought the rights to Weisberger's novel before it was not only published in 2003, but even finished. Carla Hacken, then the studio's executive vice president, had only seen the first hundred pages of manuscript and an outline for how the rest of the plot was to go. But for her that was enough. "I thought Miranda Priestly was one of the greatest villains ever," she recalled in 2016. "I remember we aggressively went in and scooped it up."

Writing

Work on a screenplay started promptly, before Weisberger had even finished her work. When it became a bestseller upon publication, elements of the plot were incorporated into the screenplay in progress. Most took their inspiration from the 2001 Ben Stiller film ''Zoolander'' and primarily satirized the fashion industry. But it was still not ready to film. Elizabeth Gabler, later head of production at Fox, noted that the finished novel did not have a complete narrative. "Since there wasn't a strong third act in the book," she said later, "we needed to invent that."

In the meantime, the studio and producer Wendy Finerman sought a director. Out of many candidates with experience in comedy, David Frankel was hired despite his limited experience, having only made one feature, ''Miami Rhapsody'', along with some episodes of ''Sex and the City'' and ''Entourage''. He was unsure about the property, calling it "undirectable ... a satire rather than a love story". Later, he cited '' Unzipped'', the 1995 documentary about designer Isaac Mizrahi, as his model for the film's attitude towards fashion: " trevels in some of the silliness of the fashion world, but is also very serious."

At a meeting with Finerman, Frankel told her that he thought the story unnecessarily punished Miranda. "My view was that we should be grateful for excellence. Why do the excellent people have to be nice?" He prepared to move on and consider more scripts. Two days later his manager persuaded him to reconsider and look for something he liked that he could shape the film into. He took the job, giving Finerman extensive notes on the script and laying out a detailed vision for the film.

Four screenwriters worked on the property. Peter Hedges wrote the first draft, but did not think he could do more; another writer passed. Paul Rudnick did some work on Miranda's scenes, followed by a Don Roos rewrite. After that, Aline Brosh McKenna, who was able to relate her own youthful experiences attempting to launch a journalism career in New York to the story, produced a draft after a month's work that struck the right balance for Finerman and Frankel, whose notes were incorporated into a final version, rearranging the plot significantly, following the book less closely and focusing the story on the conflict between Andy and Miranda. She found the experience of writing a story with female protagonists that did not center around a relationship "very liberating ... I felt I was allowed to do what the movie wanted to be, a Faust story, a ''Wall Street'' for ladies."

McKenna also initially toned down Miranda's meanness at the request of Finerman and Frankel, only to restore it later for Streep. She later cited Don Rickles as her main influence for the insults in the dialogue; before even starting work on the screenplay she had come up with Miranda's "Take a chance. Hire the smart fat girl" line, which she felt summed up the disparity between Andy and the world she found herself in. Weisberger recalled in 2021, on the film's 15th anniversary, that McKenna's draft took it away from the "typical chick flick" direction it was going in.

In a 2017 interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', McKenna revealed that the character she and Frankel had the most discussions about was Andrea's boyfriend Nate. She likened his role in the story to that usually played by a male protagonist's girlfriend or wife who regularly reminds him of responsibilities at home that he has neglected. " wanted to make sure he wasn't a pain in the ass, but he is the person who is trying to say, 'Is this who you want to be morally?'"

McKenna consulted with acquaintances who worked in fashion to make her screenplay more realistic, a task she said later was difficult since many of them did not want to risk offending Wintour. In a 2010 British Academy of Film and Television Arts lecture, she told of a scene that was changed after one of these reviews, where Nigel told Andy not to complain so much about her job. Originally, she had made his speech more of a supportive pep talk, but one of those acquaintances said that would not happen: " -one in that world is nice to each other ... There's no reason to be, and they don't have time." she quoted him as saying.

Cerulean sweater speech

The "cerulean speech", where Miranda draws the connection between the designer fashion in ''Runway''s pages and Andy's cerulean blue sweater, criticizing Andy's snobbishness about fashion and explaining the trickle-down effect, had its origins in a scene cut from earlier drafts that Streep had asked to have restored. It slowly grew from a few lines where the editor disparaged her assistant's fashion sense to a speech about "why she thought fashion was important ... She is so aware that she is affecting billions of people, and what they pick off the floor and what they are putting on their bodies in the morning." Streep said in 2016 she was interested in "the responsibility lying on the shoulders of a woman who was the head of a global brand ... That scene wasn't about the fun of fashion, it was about marketing and business."

McKenna recalls that she kept expanding it to suit Streep and Frankel, but even a few days before it was scheduled to be filmed she was unsure if it would be used or even shot. She was revising it at a nearby Starbucks when she realized that Miranda would describe something not as just blue—chosen as the color for Andy's sweater since it would work best on screen—but would instead use an exact shade. From a list of shades McKenna sent, Streep picked cerulean; the final speech takes up almost a page of the script, long for a mainstream film. "I was like, it'd be cool if half of that ended up in the movie," the writer says. "Every word is in the movie." The references to past designer collections are entirely fictional, McKenna explains, since the speech was written around the sweater's color (however, the ''Huffington Post'' later pointed out, designers often take their fashion inspiration from the streets).

The speech has become one of the film's most memorable moments; "Miranda's signature monologue" to '' The Ringer''. "'Cerulean' as neversounded more sinister," the ''Huffington Post'' wrote in 2016, In 2018 ''New York Times'' chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman invoked the speech in her defense of the importance of covering ''haute couture'':

Morwenna Ferrier, a fashion reporter for ''The Guardian'' agreed, despite the speech's references to fictional collections. "As a fashion journalist I can vouch for its gist: that regardless of how immune you think you are to fashion, if you buy clothes, you are indebted to someone else's choice", she wrote in an article about how the fashion industry continues to embrace the speech's argument. "Arguing that you are oblivious to trends is a fashion choice in itself." As an example of how that had happened in reality since the film, she cited the yellow Guo Pei dress Rihanna wore to the 2015 Met Gala, greatly popularizing that color for clothing over the next two years.

In 2016, on the film's 10th anniversary, '' Mic'' wrote that the speech's logic also functioned as a critique of cultural appropriation. "In many ways, Priestley's monologue nailed the real problem with cultural appropriation: people not understanding the history or meaning behind something like cornrows or headdresses, but treating it like a new trend or accessory anyway."

Six years later, in a ''Slate'' article discussing the appeal of female characters in movies and TV who deliver incisive insults and other commentary with no apparent affect, such as those played by Aubrey Plaza, Nadira Goffe recalled Streep's "epic, unfeeling monologue" about the sweater as a "perfect example" of the archetype. "In a moment where a character would usually be showing a hint of frustration, anger, or even annoyance, Streep schools Anne Hathaway's character in a manner that feels as though she barely even thought about the words she was saying", she writes. "It gives her an air of removal, and therefore control—being straight-faced and even-toned in an emotional situation shows how little she cares, or that she's lying about caring at all."

Casting

Once the screenplay was completed, the filmmakers and Fox focused on getting Meryl Streep to play Miranda; Carla Hacken recalled she was seen as so perfect for the part that no one had discussed any alternatives (although McKenna recalls writing provisional dialogue should the producers have had to settle for another actress). Weisberger, who initially could not imagine Streep playing the part, recalled that after seeing her on set it was "crystal clear" that she was perfect for the role. Her casting helped offset some of the difficulties Wintour's resistance to the film had created.

The news that Streep would meet with Frankel was celebrated at Fox. But while Streep, for her part, knew the film could be very successful, she felt the pay she was being offered for playing Miranda was "slightly, if not insulting, not perhaps reflective of my actual value to the project". The producers doubled it to around $4 million, and she signed on, allowing Fox to greenlight the film. According to Frankel, Streep saw the film as a chance to "skewer the doyennes of the fashion world". She has three daughters and, as an ardent feminist, felt that fashion magazines "twisted the minds of young women around the world and their priorities. This was an interesting way to get back at them." Also, she said, the film passed the Bechdel test.

She insisted on the cerulean sweater speech, and the scene where Miranda briefly opens up to Andy, without makeup, about her divorce. "I wanted", she explained, "to see that face without its protective glaze, to glimpse the woman in the businesswoman."

Casting Andy was more difficult. Fox wanted a young A-list actress, and felt Rachel McAdams, then coming off successes in ''Mean Girls'' and ''The Notebook'', would help the film's commercial prospects. McAdams turned down several offers to play Andy, telling the studio she was trying to avoid mainstream Hollywood projects for a while. Claire Danes and Juliette Lewis were among seven other actresses also considered.

Anne Hathaway, by contrast, actively sought the part, tracing "Hire me" in the sand of the zen garden on Hacken's desk when she talked about the project with the executive. While Frankel liked her enough to not require her to audition, she knew she was not the studio's first choice and he would have to be patient (other accounts say that she was the only actress considered for the role). Fox production chief Elizabeth Gabler says the studio had not realized how strong her audience was after the ''Princess Diaries'' films. In one of their meetings, Gabler recalls Hathaway sitting on her couch giving her notes on the third act. While the studio did not use those notes, "her sensibilities were completely aligned with what we ended up doing." Hathaway took the part to work with Streep, but also due to some personal aspects.Whitty, Stephen; July 29, 2007; "Growing up in public"; ''The Star-Ledger'', Section 4, page 2. "I wanted to illustrate how dangerous it was to not make your own choices ... I had been doing that for far too long" She celebrated when she learned she had gotten the part.

Over 100 actresses had been considered for Emily before one of the casting agents taped Emily Blunt reading some of the lines elsewhere on the Fox lot as she was leaving for her flight to London following her audition for ''Eragon''. Although she read them in her own British accent despite the character being written as American like in the novel, Frankel was interested; Finerman liked her for her sense of humor. After the makers of ''Eragon'' cast Sienna Guillory, Frankel called her in the bathroom of "some dive club" in London, where she was consoling herself with her sister. He told her that while he would have cast her just from the tape, the studio wanted to see another audition with her dressed more in character. She insisted on continuing to play the character as British. Both Hathaway and Blunt lost weight for their roles, with Hathaway later recounting that they "would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry." Blunt later denied rumors she did this at the filmmakers' request.

Colleen and Suzanne Dengel, the twins who played Miranda's daughters, were cast two weeks after auditioning for Frankel and Finerman. The director and producer laughed, which the sisters believed help them get the part. They recalled in 2017 that they were excited both by being able to work together on camera for the first time, as well as the chance to act opposite Hathaway since they were big fans of the ''Princess Diaries'' films as well.

Tucci was one of the last actors cast; he agreed to play Nigel only three days before shooting started. "It was just such a beautiful piece of writing, and there's no way that you could ever say no to such a thing", he recalled. The filmmakers reportedly had auditioned Barney's creative director Simon Doonan and E!'s Robert Verdi, both openly gay men highly visible as media fashion commentators, for the part; the BBC
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