It has somehow been 15 years since The Devil Wears Prada first graced our screens in 2006, giving new and powerful meaning to words like groundbreaking and that’s all. If you didn’t read those words in Meryl Streep‘s iconique Miranda Priestly voice then poor-bloody-form. To celebrate the 15th anniversary, I would like to throw things back to earlier this year when Anne Hathaway appeared as a guest on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
One queen asked the actor if she ever had to “fight tooth and nail for” a role.
“I will give you some tea, I was the ninth choice for Devil Wears Prada,” Hathaway answered.
NINTH.
“But I got it! Hang in there, never give up.”
I’m sorry, but NINTH?!
I knew Hathaway wasn’t the first choice for the role – that wasn’t new news at the time, but the fact that she was NINTH in line absolutely was.
I am just so thrown every time I think about this, because I cannot – I genuinely cannot – imagine anyone else playing Andy as good as Anne Hathaway did.
According to an interview with Variety from 2016, the team behind the film were actually really keen on casting Rachel McAdams in the lead role of Andy.
But McAdams turned down the part multiple times because she wanted to step away from mainstream films for a while. And that’s totally fair, she had just been in Mean Girls and The Notebook, which both came out in 2004.
In that same Variety interview, Hathaway said that while she didn’t have to formally audition for Andy’s part, she did have to play the waiting game.
“I had to be patient. I wasn’t the first choice,” she said.
And the waiting obviously paid off.
“I was putting on a shirt,” Hathaway said, recalling the moment her agent told her she got the role. “I had some buddies over. I remember running out in my living room, half dressed, screaming – I got The Devil Wears Prada! I got The Devil Wears Prada!”
Ahhh, don’t you just love a throw – NINTH, NINTH, I’m still not over it. I just want to know who the other seven people were.
Moving on (for now), the cast recently reunited online for an oral history on the film and its legacy. They traded stories from set and Streep did… the voice.
Have at it.
The Devil Wears Prada is streaming now on Disney+. You know what to do.
