Even Adrian Grenier Agrees Nate Was the True Villain of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
"That's all."
With those two words, Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly instantly became the undeniable star of 2006's The Devil Wears Prada. But was the scathing, ice-cold Runway magazine editor the film's true villain? We hardly think so — and it turns out, neither does Adrian Grenier.
The cast of the hit movie recently reunited for an oral history of the making of The Devil Wears Prada for its 15th anniversary, and the actor readily agreed the sad-sack boyfriend of Anne Hathaway's Andy is the real devil in the story... even if he didn't see it at first.
"When that whole thing [about Nate being the "real villain" of the film] first came out, I couldn't get my head around it," Grenier admitted about his character in EW's oral history. "I didn't understand it. Perhaps it was because I wasn't mature as a man, just as Nate probably could've used a little growing up.
"I was just as immature as him at the time, so I couldn't see his shortcomings, but, after taking time to reflect and much deliberation online, I can realize the truth in that perspective," Grenier added. "Nate hadn't grown up, but Andy had.... she needed more out of life, and she was achieving it. He couldn't support her like she needed because he was a fragile, wounded boy…"
Frankly, it's good to hear even the actor who played Nate has come around to the fact that he was literally the worst to Andy in the movie. The guy got angry that she was going to Paris! For Fashion Week! And don't even get us started on the whole birthday party fiasco... Yet knowing that Grenier didn't see his character as the bad guy while he was making the movie somehow makes the whole thing that much better.
In fact, Grenier had a message for his character (and all the real-life fragile, wounded boys just like him): "On behalf of all the Nates out there: Come on! Step it up!"
Now someone find Emily and get us a cube of cheese while we go back to studying the history of cerulean from inside the Runway fashion closet...