Rachel McAdams was offered the role of Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada three times before it went to Anne Hathaway.
The comedy, set at a fashion magazine just like Vogue, turns 15 this year, and to mark the occasion, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Adrian Grenier, as well as director David Frankel and key crew members, spoke to Entertainment Weekly to give an oral history of the movie.
After Anne previously claimed she was the ninth person to be offered the role of aspiring journalist turned assistant to the intimidating Miranda Priestly, Frankel shared that Rachel McAdams was the studio’s first choice.
He said: ‘We started negotiating with Annie to make a deal, and that didn’t go well with the studio.… We offered it to Rachel McAdams three times.
‘The studio was determined to have her, and she was determined not to do it.’
Rachel had just come off two major successes with Mean Girls and The Notebook in 2004, while at the time, Anne was mainly known for her roles in teen comedies like The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted.
The studio wanted a more established dramatic actress, and Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Kate Hudson and Kirsten Dunst were also considered.
However, Anne refused to give up and fought for the role, meeting with executives and writing ‘hire me’ in the zen garden of the studio’s vice president.
The now Oscar winner, 38, told EW: ‘It spoke to me. It made me feel. It was about a subject that I take very seriously, but in such a wonderfully joyful and lighthearted way.
‘I patiently waited until it was my turn, and I got the call. It was the easiest yes in the world. I remember the moment I found out I got the part, I just ran screaming through my apartment. I had a bunch of friends over at the time, I just jumped up in the living room and screamed, “I’m going to be in The Devil Wears Prada!”’
Appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race earlier this year, Anne admitted that she was way down on the list for the role of Andy, telling the queens: ‘I will give you some tea – I was the ninth choice for Devil Wears Prada. But I got it! Hang in there, never give up.’
The film made Anne a bonafide star, and she went on to appear in starred in Bride Wars, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, The Hustle and Les Misérables, for which she won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role as Fantine.
Meanwhile, the role of the fearsome Miranda Priestly, the editor of Runway magazine, doesn’t seem like it could have been played by anybody but Meryl Streep, but Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all discussed for the role.
However, the studio managed to bag Meryl, and she received her 11th Oscar nomination (14th overall) for best actress for the role.
The Devil Wears Prada – based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name – was released in 2006 and tells the story of Andy, who lands a job as Miranda Priestly’s assistant, despite wanting to be at a more traditional newspaper or magazine.
She gets a stark insight into the world of fashion and finds her whole world – and her style – changing as she fights for Miranda’s approval.
Source: Read Full Article