The Devil Wears Prada’s Adrian Grenier Didn’t Understand Nate Was A Villain

The Devil Wears Prada star, Adrian Grenier, confessed that he wasn’t able to pick up on his character, Nate’s shortcomings or understand why Nate was considered the real villain until years after the film released. The 2006 rom-com starred Anne Hathaway as Andy, a recent graduate who lands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine with renowned editor, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). The only problem is that Miranda is literally dubbed “the devil” in The Devil Wears Prada, and Andy must work hard to please and win over Miranda as her new assistant.

Grenier played Nate, Andy’s boyfriend and an amateur chef. Nate wasn’t supportive of Andy’s career pursuits from the start. When she landed the job at a fashion magazine, Nate was shocked and noted that it wasn’t necessarily the journalism that she was striving for. As the movie went on, Nate began to lose patience with Andy’s need to attend business events and pay close attention to Miranda’s every demand. As the film went on, they grew apart. Eventually, Nate and Andy break up after a tumultuous fight in which he slams her for letting her career “change her.” However, in classic rom-com fashion, Andy takes the blame and apologizes. She tells him she quit her job for him and the two move up to Boston for his chef career.

During an interview with EW, Grenier revealed that he didn’t understand the backlash surrounding Nate and why he was dubbed “the real villain” by fans of The Devil Wears Prada. He noted that he wasn’t able to “get his head around” the idea that Nate was the bad guy in holding Andy back from her career. However, he has since seen the light and chalked his past thoughts up to “not being mature as a man,” much like his character Nate. When he portrayed the character he “couldn’t see his shortcomings,” but after years of reflection and witnessing debates about his character online, he now sees the error of his ways. He realized that while Andy developed over the course of the film, Nate certainly hadn’t, which is why he couldn’t come to terms with Andy’s success and growth.

Meanwhile, Grenier also had a message for his past self and all the men who continue to view the world through Nate’s perspective. Instead of these men failing to support women because of their own weakness, he advised them to, “Step it up!” It’s refreshing to see a public figure be able to reflect, admit they were wrong, and change their ways. While it’s essential for an actor to see the good and humanistic traits in their character while portraying them, it’s also equally important to be able to step out of the character and admit their flaws and how it affects the theme of the piece.

His later-in-life assessment of Nate is apt and what most fans of the movie seem to agree with. Over time, fans have argued that Nate is the real villain as opposed to Miranda. Miranda may have been a tough boss, but ultimately, she helped Andy grow and lifted her up, in her own abusive-bossesque way. Meanwhile, Nate held her back and essentially molded her into the supportive girlfriend who met his needs rather than her own. Regardless, now’s as good a time as any to rewatch The Devil Wears Prada and reassess all the movie’s devilish characters.

Source: EW

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