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Ep. 33: 'The Devil Wears Prada' & the Year of Anne Hathaway
67 Plays25 days ago
In this episode of 'Adaptation: The Book to Movie Podcast,' Nate and Chris discuss Lauren Weisberger's 'The Devil Wears Prada' and its film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.
They discuss what makes this story accessible despite being set in the world of high fashion, as well as what makes the movie a cultural touchpoint.
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Hosts: Nate Day, Chris Anderson
Producer: Nate Day
"Adaptation Theme"
- Written by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow
- Performed by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow, Nate Day
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Nate Day
Welcome to Adaptation, the book-to-movie podcast. I'm Nate.
00:00:04
Chris
And I'm Chris.
00:00:06
Nate Day
And today we're talking about a movie that probably everybody's seen. Wouldn't you agree?
00:00:12
Chris
You know what? I went back and forth on that a lot, too, I have to imagine. So I've not seen it, of course, but I imagine anyone listening has.
00:00:20
Nate Day
That's ridiculous. We're talking about The Devil Wears Prada. I have no idea... How, first of all, is your power okay in your house? Your lights are flickering.
00:00:28
Chris
I kicked my power strip. Yeah.
00:00:30
Nate Day
so Well, that's Miranda Priestly telling you to get on it and watch this movie, I think, is what that is.
00:00:37
Chris
Yeah, I guess so, I think.
Initial Thoughts on the Book and Movie
00:00:40
Nate Day
How have you gone your entire life without seeing this movie?
00:00:43
Chris
i So first and foremost, reading the book did actually very much make me want to watch it I might go watch it the second we get done with this.
00:00:51
Nate Day
Oh. Oh.
00:00:54
Chris
Because I also just finished the book this morning. I had never watched it the first time because given the title and, do you know, the trailers, I was very much led to presume it's like just about fashion, if that makes sense.
00:01:10
Nate Day
Okay. Sure. Yeah.
00:01:12
Chris
which I'm sure we'll get into that it indeed, I mean, obviously centers around it, but it is not a book about fashion if you, if you boil it down.
00:01:18
Nate Day
Right.
00:01:19
Chris
Right.
00:01:19
Nate Day
No. Right.
00:01:20
Nate Day
The movie is not either.
00:01:21
Chris
I just presume, okay, that's, that's what I figured, but I presumed it was just about fashion.
00:01:26
Chris
So at the time it came out, I had less than no interest in that. And, um, And,
00:01:30
Nate Day
Sure.
00:01:32
Chris
I don't know, it somehow even escaped my love for Anne Hathaway enough to just never watch it. I don't know. I don't have a good excuse this time. i agree with you. I feel like even I should have seen this by now.
00:01:43
Nate Day
Yeah, well, Anne Hathaway, I'm glad you mentioned her. She is our patron saint this year because this is the first of, I think, three movies of hers that we're going to cover this year because she has Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey and Verity all coming out this which are all titles we plan to plan to cover.
00:01:59
Chris
Heck yeah.
00:02:03
Nate Day
So she's our patron saint.
Anne Hathaway's Career and Related Projects
00:02:07
Nate Day
But before we dive into our conversation, what else have you been reading?
00:02:12
Chris
I have unfortunately not been reading much as we went on our trip together to do the wonderful pilgrimage into the world that is Cats, the musical, the movie based on the book.
00:02:17
Nate Day
Mm-hmm.
00:02:23
Nate Day
Yeah. Yep. Sorry about that episode, everybody.
00:02:27
Chris
I apologize for nothing. That video came out exactly how I wanted it to be.
00:02:32
Nate Day
No, I'm apologizing because I did zero editing because I had a panic attack after listening to the first three minutes.
00:02:35
Chris
Oh,
00:02:38
Nate Day
I was like, I can't do this. Yeah.
00:02:41
Chris
That was uneditable and i think better in its truest, raw, passionate form.
00:02:48
Nate Day
Yeah. Right. It like matches cat. It's a piece of art. It's not a podcast. It's a piece of art.
00:02:54
Chris
Just like Jason Derulo's weird animated cat teeth.
00:02:59
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:03:00
Nate Day
Yeah. That's a nightmare.
00:03:00
Chris
Just like it.
Current Entertainment and Movie Discussions
00:03:01
Nate Day
Anyway, what have you been reading?
00:03:02
Chris
but Because of the travel and real busy, I've been at the school like 10 hours a day every day for the last two weeks. So I have only gotten through one book since we talked last.
00:03:10
Nate Day
Oh.
00:03:13
Chris
And it was actually for my book club. We did the Night of the Seven Kingdoms that the new HBO series is based on.
00:03:22
Nate Day
Oh, great. I love that show.
00:03:25
Chris
i yeah On your recommendation, I watched, I think, an episode and a half and lost interest because it's a universe I'm not interested in
00:03:35
Nate Day
right.
00:03:35
Chris
But now having read it, I think I'll definitely have to go back. It picks up a lot. the They slowed the pace down considerably in the show, which is strange.
00:03:44
Nate Day
that was That was one of my complaints was that I got to episode like three or four and was like, when is something going to happen in the show?
00:03:51
Chris
Yes!
00:03:51
Nate Day
Like you can't have a Game of Thrones show where people are just drinking and at I don't know, talking, I don't know.
00:03:57
Chris
Yeah.
00:04:00
Chris
Like Ned Stark was already dead by then in the original series.
00:04:00
Nate Day
You know?
00:04:03
Nate Day
Right, right.
00:04:05
Chris
Yeah.
00:04:05
Nate Day
Almost, yeah.
00:04:06
Chris
So I think I might go back to it. I believe they, it's a weird series. Mine came as a bundle. So it's listed technically as three separate books, but really it's three novellas.
00:04:15
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:04:17
Chris
They're short, short.
00:04:19
Nate Day
And I believe the first season, is this what you were going to say?
00:04:19
Chris
And I believe.
00:04:23
Nate Day
it's just the first novella, right?
00:04:25
Chris
Yes. Yes, exactly.
00:04:26
Nate Day
Okay.
00:04:26
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:04:28
Chris
No, they it was fantastic, really fun. I never read the original books. I wasn't super interested. I've still never finished that show. But they're fun and and a lot less creepy than some of the problematic elements of the original.
00:04:36
Nate Day
Oh, that's right.
00:04:43
Nate Day
Yeah, actually, that's really very true. I think maybe that is why I'm just now connecting those dots too. Maybe that's why it goes down so easy.
00:04:52
Chris
Yeah, a lot a lot less marriage to 14-year-olds and incest. So that's cool.
00:04:57
Nate Day
Right, right, yeah.
00:05:00
Chris
But that's about it. That's all I've been reading. What have you been watching?
00:05:04
Nate Day
Well, speaking of 14-year-olds, I saw the Michael Jackson movie.
00:05:06
Chris
Oh, gosh. You watched Lolita.
In-depth Analysis of 'The Devil Wears Prada'
00:05:12
Nate Day
I can't believe I just said that.
00:05:16
Nate Day
Sorry, gentlemen that
00:05:19
Chris
OK. Oh.
00:05:20
Nate Day
that suffered there. Anyway, it's it's not a very good movie. it's Obviously, he was a good musician, a fantastic musician and performer.
00:05:25
Chris
Mm.
00:05:31
Nate Day
Really difficult, I think. this This movie, I think, cemented for me that it's basically impossible to separate art and artists. Because you can watch as you're watching the movie, which was approved by his estate and like managed by his estate, basically.
00:05:47
Nate Day
You can tell all of the moments where they they like are trying to sanitize things or valorize Michael Jackson. There's a lot of moments in the movie where he interacts with kids and you're like, oh, my God, just like get it off the screen.
00:05:59
Nate Day
I don't I don't want to but if there if I was going to enjoy this movie at all, it was going to have to just be like.
00:06:00
Chris
yeah
00:06:06
Nate Day
back-to-back performances basically because he was the greatest performer that's ever lived.
00:06:09
Chris
yeah yep yep yeah like why why even broach that topic hmm
00:06:11
Nate Day
So even putting him with a kid on screen, i was just like, God, just like get it out of here. I can't do it. So yeah, right.
00:06:24
Nate Day
And it was like, they were kind of winking it is almost how it felt like they were like, Oh, he's with the kid. Oh, and he didn't do anything. And I'm like, well, yeah, in public,
00:06:32
Chris
its
00:06:35
Nate Day
Right.
00:06:35
Nate Day
You know, I'm like, and also as the Jackson estate would tell the story anyway, kind of like a lousy movie outside, outside of the kids stuff too.
00:06:35
Chris
Yeah, yeah, of course.
00:06:46
Nate Day
It's just like, there's no plot. These music biopics are often pretty boring because it's just like a talented person person is born and works really hard. And that's kind of their story, you know?
00:06:57
Chris
Yep.
00:07:00
Nate Day
So that was one that I saw. i watched a Hulu original movie called Pizza Movie, which was kind of funny. It's about two college freshmen that try psychedelics.
00:07:10
Nate Day
And it's like a stoner comedy. Basically, they just have all kinds of crazy experiences on these drugs. It's funny if you want to check it out.
00:07:21
Nate Day
And then the the one that I really loved it was called Mother Mary that I saw in theaters, which is also an Anne Hathaway movie. Have you seen ads for this? She plays like a fucked up pop star.
00:07:29
Chris
I think so.
00:07:30
Nate Day
Yeah. She plays a pop star and the movie is about her reuniting with her former costume designer who also may or may not have been a romantic partner.
00:07:44
Nate Day
And it's like the story about, you know, what it's like to have screwed over somebody and all of the negative feelings that come with that.
00:07:45
Chris
Oh.
00:07:52
Nate Day
And, and just this like really cool Gothic pop star drama. I thought it was really cool. and songs by Charlie XCX too.
00:08:02
Nate Day
So good, good soundtrack. And of course, Anne Hathaway can sing like a mofo. So works out pretty good.
00:08:09
Chris
Yeah, yeah. That one's worth seeing.
00:08:12
Nate Day
Yeah, I think so.
00:08:14
Chris
Sweet. I'll go check that out.
00:08:16
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:08:16
Chris
and maybe the pizza one, too. That sounds more up my lane.
00:08:19
Nate Day
Yeah, I actually was thinking about that. I was like, you might think that it's entirely stupid, but you'll still be able to have fun. Blair will love that movie from from top to bottom.
00:08:28
Chris
Yeah?
00:08:29
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:08:30
Nate Day
Mm-hmm.
Fashion Industry's Influence in Storytelling
00:08:31
Chris
we are here today to talk about The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger, published 2003.
00:08:38
Chris
That
00:08:41
Nate Day
Mm-hmm.
00:08:41
Chris
that was so long ago. Okay, the this was very interesting. Okay.
00:08:50
Chris
Weisberger herself is essentially the main character, Andrea. I don't know how much of this you are familiar with or not.
00:09:00
Nate Day
i I knew that it was loosely based or inspired by her time working for Anna Wintour at Vogue.
00:09:09
Chris
Yes, yes. So same thing, not from the Andrea in the book is like from Connecticut. Weisberger was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. But very similar story, similar demographic, similar move to Manhattan to go be an assistant for Anna Wintour at Vogue and then wrote this book.
00:09:18
Nate Day
Mm-hmm.
00:09:29
Chris
Not about about it, but essentially.
00:09:33
Chris
biographical semi-true story, right?
00:09:34
Nate Day
Right, right. Yep.
00:09:37
Chris
Which is the super meta when you look at the plot. And I guess I intended to ask you about this. This one is so old. I feel like we cannot be worried about spoilers on this one.
00:09:48
Chris
Right.
00:09:48
Nate Day
Oh, yeah, don't worry about it.
00:09:52
Chris
That then at the end, that is the wrap up of the plot line that Andrea goes on to write stories about this horrible year experience as the assistant.
00:10:03
Chris
and that's exactly what Weisberger did. So super fun, big, full circle there.
00:10:06
Nate Day
Oh, funny.
00:10:08
Chris
I mean, it's it's barely a mention at the end.
00:10:09
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:10:11
Chris
And I guess I'm I'm curious how much that comes through in the movie.
00:10:12
Nate Day
Oh,
00:10:17
Nate Day
I don't think it does. I don't think she mentions that she's going to turn it into a story.
00:10:22
Chris
How does the movie end?
00:10:25
Nate Day
Andy.
Behind the Scenes and Production Insights
00:10:28
Nate Day
gets a job, she's interviewing for a job at a newspaper, and the guy that's interviewing her says that Miranda called and offered up a reference.
00:10:39
Chris
What?
00:10:39
Nate Day
Basically. I mean, in a very Miranda Priestly way, but yeah, everybody moves on.
00:10:46
Chris
But they're not at Paris week and Lily is in a car crash and she tells Miranda to fuck herself and quits and goes home.
00:10:56
Nate Day
Yeah, that all happens as well.
00:10:58
Nate Day
And then Andy quits working for runway, the fictional magazine and gets a better job, lives a better life.
00:10:59
Chris
Oh.
00:11:04
Chris
Uh-huh. What?
00:11:07
Chris
What?
00:11:08
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:11:09
Chris
Yes, okay, okay, okay, which is just so delightfully satisfying in the book. That's annoying that they added that, though. Because she did...
00:11:18
Nate Day
I mean, it's also super brief. I bet when you watch it, it'll go down easy.
00:11:24
Chris
It's literally the last ten minutes of the book. Chapter...
00:11:27
Nate Day
Yeah, I mean,
00:11:29
Chris
Like, essentially an epilogue.
00:11:32
Nate Day
yeah, you could argue that for the movie.
00:11:36
Chris
Yeah, chapter 19 of 19, and it's like this big. pen Anyway, yeah, so very autobiographical about her time. I did not know that, so then seeing that they brought Anna Wintour up on stage, you know, as the allusion at this year's awards to the new one was just hilarious to me.
00:11:56
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:11:58
Chris
I mean, obviously she does not give two shits what any of us think of her, but... that I cannot imagine, you know, it's like the old saying,
00:12:11
Chris
wishing upon your enemy that there's a writer in their family.
00:12:15
Nate Day
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:12:16
Chris
Right?
00:12:17
Nate Day
That's funny. Yeah.
00:12:19
Chris
Like, I cannot imagine working with somebody and then finding out they wrote this book about what a piece of shit you are.
00:12:26
Nate Day
Right.
00:12:27
Chris
And then, like, being in on the joke. Like, that that that takes a level of thick skin.
00:12:29
Nate Day
Right. Well, we'll, we'll talk about it because her, uh, engagement with these movies is really interesting.
00:12:40
Chris
Okay, okay, I wondered. Yeah, and I have not looked into any of that.
00:12:41
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:12:44
Chris
again Honestly, the more than this keeps happening, the more I learn about it, the more interested I am in seeing it. But super brief, again, because we we really do have to imagine at this point everyone has seen the movie. I guess I'm not sure which parts of these do line up and which ones don't. A brief aside, even without having seen it, I could not get... Anne Hathaway, of course, and who's the older?
00:13:12
Nate Day
Meryl Streep.
00:13:13
Chris
Yeah, Meryl Streep. Could not get their faces out of my head while I was reading, which always annoys me.
00:13:18
Nate Day
OK.
00:13:19
Chris
That's why I always want to read the book first, because everything else I could kind of make up for myself.
00:13:19
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:13:22
Nate Day
Right.
00:13:26
Chris
And just these two characters, I have this very clear picture of, yeah, the girl from Princess Diaries and the lady from other stuff Meryl Streep has done.
00:13:30
Nate Day
Yeah, totally.
00:13:35
Nate Day
Everything else, yeah.
00:13:37
Chris
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that annoyed me. But I will say, even just being here now in Brooklyn for six months, I think there was a level of accessibility to the book that would have been just too
Cultural Impact and Iconic Performances
00:13:52
Chris
indecipherable before before I lived in New York.
00:13:56
Chris
And I don't know if others experienced that, but they really rely on
00:13:57
Nate Day
Okay.
00:14:01
Chris
like some of her stressors and getting around town and all of this stuff, the exaggeration or the time crunches or the ridiculousness of the, what is the fake company name they made up? Something Ellis?
00:14:17
Chris
the The magazine
00:14:19
Nate Day
like publisher.
00:14:19
Chris
umbrella company. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:21
Nate Day
I don't know that doesn't I don't think that comes up in the movie.
00:14:24
Chris
It's something Ellis. It's like their version of the like Conde Nast having Bon Appetit and all of these.
00:14:29
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:14:31
Chris
And then this one has Runway and, you know, all of its affiliates or whatever.
00:14:31
Nate Day
Right.
00:14:35
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:14:36
Chris
So that was interesting to me because I know for a fact those things would have been just gone straight over my head and they offer a lot of detail.
00:14:44
Chris
as As we mentioned briefly, it is, of course, not just a book about fashion.
00:14:51
Nate Day
Right.
00:14:52
Chris
This girl graduates college, goes to get her first job, becomes an assistant for this fictional version of Anna Wintour, who, as the title of the book suggests, is a horrible human being.
00:15:06
Chris
And the themes that were coming through, because at first I was like, this sucks. This is going to be a drudge. I am not the target audience. But you are quickly pulled into, I think, much, much more...
00:15:15
Nate Day
Right.
00:15:22
Chris
realistic situations and questions that we all do face.
00:15:27
Nate Day
Oh yeah.
00:15:27
Chris
You know, watching your friends have this job that makes them miserable.
00:15:35
Chris
the The big interpersonal choice is definitely at the end there when she's deciding if she stays for fashion week or comes home because her friend is in a coma.
Personal Engagement and Final Thoughts
00:15:45
Nate Day
oh yeah Okay.
00:15:46
Chris
But you do, I think, I think the, the probably the most brilliant and unique, interesting, whatever part of the writing is, that is not, that's the most blatant example.
00:15:59
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:15:59
Chris
But throughout, as she's, you know, having to ditch plans with her boyfriend,
00:16:02
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:16:03
Chris
Not even able to talk on the phone at work. I kept finding myself kind of weighing them in my head as, as this person's fictional friend, or as this person trying to apologize to their friends, how would I feel in that situation?
00:16:19
Nate Day
yeah
00:16:20
Chris
And, I think, especially now knowing it's a true story and it's not even, she didn't manufacture this setting to add drama.
00:16:29
Nate Day
Sure.
00:16:31
Chris
Uh, I think it really brought some questions to mind because initially I totally just agreed with her parents and her friends. Like you work at a fashion magazine. This is a topic that doesn't matter to me.
00:16:43
Chris
why Why, are you pulling your hair out for this?
00:16:44
Nate Day
Right. 100%.
00:16:47
Chris
And that's kind of her point when she finally blows up and says, this is my job. This is my career. This is my future. Why can't you take it seriously? Which is a very valid point.
00:16:56
Nate Day
hundred percent
00:16:58
Chris
So that that was very interesting to me. It was a depth that I very much did not expect for the exact reason that the characters in the book were not giving it adequate respect. And that really made me pause and consider what you know what inherent judgments am I bringing to discussions with people about job family, free time, whatever.
00:17:22
Nate Day
Right.
00:17:23
Chris
And it's it's so easy to only look through your own lens and not consider the the very real fact, whatever, you know, who knows what the most difficult problem I will face today is, or you.
00:17:37
Chris
They will undoubtedly not be the same problem.
00:17:38
Nate Day
Right.
00:17:40
Chris
And no matter what they are or what their severity is, both will be the most difficult thing each of us deals with today.
00:17:46
Nate Day
right
00:17:48
Chris
And so that was really a a slap in the morals that I was not expecting from a book titled The Devil Wears Prada.
00:17:58
Nate Day
Who'd have thought this would be the self-improvement text of the year for you?
00:18:01
Chris
Yeah, right?
00:18:03
Chris
Yeah, really it really made me do some thinking in that sense. So that theme of how she's interacting with her friends and family is very strong. And I don't know...
00:18:16
Chris
Again, being so autobiographical, I don't know. You know, this wasn't a moralistic allegory, as next week's will be.
00:18:26
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:18:28
Chris
i don't know that she intended to convey a message or not, but they were there was something... almost comforting in this frankly absurd.
00:18:40
Chris
i have no idea how accurate the portrayal of, you know, actually being Anna Winters' assistant was or anything like that. I hope no one is genuinely that horrific to people they work with.
00:18:47
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:18:52
Nate Day
Right.
00:18:54
Chris
But there was, I think, anyone who chose to read this text would see a lot of parallels that they can commiserate with, and there was a comfort in looking at what should or what what is, what frankly is an absurd setting and saying, oh, yeah, I have these same problems. I deal with this same. How am I getting there this fast? Do I have time to go see these people?
00:19:18
Chris
And that just shocked me. I did not expect that at all.
00:19:23
Nate Day
I love that. I love that this is the one, you know, i feel like I feel like every time on this podcast that you go, I wasn't liking the book, but then i knew we had to do it because Nate said we were going to do it, which is not how you put it, because you're much more eloquent than that.
00:19:27
Chris
Yes, I agree with you.
00:19:40
Chris
but
00:19:42
Nate Day
But you're like, OK, here we go. Another one. And then there's always something.
00:19:46
Chris
Yes, 100%. Perhaps this one more than any yet. And I agree with you, it has happened a number of times now. But left to my i mean clearly left to my own devices for 23 years, I happily elected not to even consider reading it.
00:20:02
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:20:03
Chris
But even at that, had I chosen to start reading this this year by my own accord, i see virtually no way I would have finished it on my own.
00:20:15
Nate Day
Sure. Sure.
00:20:17
Nate Day
So the big lesson here is that Nate is always right.
00:20:17
Chris
which is a
00:20:20
Chris
That is the takeaway. Thank you for coming to our TED Talk.
00:20:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:20:23
Chris
This is your PSA world.
00:20:24
Nate Day
Yep.
00:20:26
Chris
Nate is always right.
00:20:27
Nate Day
Yep.
00:20:28
Chris
I mean, obviously the movie is a different thing. Had we not been discussing this for the podcast, well, have you ever read it?
00:20:35
Nate Day
No, I never have.
00:20:38
Chris
Do you think you would have?
00:20:41
Nate Day
No, no, not before this conversation.
00:20:45
Chris
Okay, okay. And I guess I've never really wondered this because I see, I always see them in terms of book and then movie because that's the order it goes in almost always.
00:20:54
Nate Day
Right.
00:20:55
Chris
know that's not true. Do you ever see a movie and you enjoy it so much that you think I got to go read the book this was based on?
00:21:02
Nate Day
Mm-hmm. It's happened a handful of times throughout my life. I tried it with Phantom of the Opera recently, but couldn't get through the book.
00:21:14
Nate Day
It's like a translation. It's written in French. I think there was just a lot that I was not prepared for with that one specifically. That was not meant to be a you know poor poor review of the book or anything, but I
00:21:20
Chris
Okay.
00:21:24
Nate Day
I didn't finish it. That's the most recent example though, but I'm sure if I scrolled through my TBR, which, you know, never gets chipped away at it would be a lot of books based on movies that I've seen.
00:21:37
Chris
Okay. okay Yeah, yeah, because you saw the movie first, right?
00:21:38
Nate Day
The color purple.
00:21:43
Chris
Or that one you read first.
00:21:43
Nate Day
Yep.
00:21:45
Chris
Okay. Okay.
00:21:46
Nate Day
I don't remember what order. I think I started reading it, put it down for like a couple of years, watch the, original movie from the eighties and then was like, okay, I got to read this book.
00:21:56
Chris
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:57
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:21:58
Chris
I mean, I do just in terms of like accessibility and time commitment, I think it's far simpler going from book to movie. You know, I don't know what this took me, 12, 14 hours or something.
00:22:07
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:22:12
Chris
And today I can say, oh, that was a good book. I'll sit down and watch it before I leave for dinner. So there's a there's a time a very specific time barrier that is very, very different.
00:22:17
Nate Day
Right.
00:22:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:22:22
Chris
But yeah, this one, I think more than anything else that we've discussed,
00:22:29
Chris
it made me want to see the movie... It did not necessarily make me like the book more, but that part is very much a personal thing on my part in terms of what I enjoy in books that we've discussed before.
00:22:41
Nate Day
Sure. Yeah.
00:22:42
Chris
i hate a bully. I can't, I don't like them.
00:22:44
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:22:46
Chris
I can't stand them in real life in fiction. You know, I come to books to relax and she is just such a vile, deplorable, unlikable being.
00:22:52
Nate Day
Yeah. and And she wins, you know, for the most part.
00:23:04
Chris
Yeah, yeah. she's Well, there's there's like that slight glimmer of it that I thought was very, very good writing. I mean, it was so clear that this is where it was headed.
00:23:13
Chris
It was verging on nauseating, but you still need the satisfaction of the completion in this way.
00:23:19
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:23:20
Chris
When she turns, when Miranda turns to Andrea in the car, hears about her friend being in a coma, And finally brings up, what is it you want to do with your career? Your year is almost up. Yeah, I know people that I could put you in touch with for this career. Your whole goal this entire time, what you put up with all this crap for. And then i see a lot of me at your age in you. And stopping to step back, you know, this is a very classic trope of...
00:23:54
Chris
Yes, I have sacrificed. Yes, I have fought. And this is where it's headed. She has no friends. Nobody likes her. She's surrounded by sycophants and yes men at best.
00:24:03
Nate Day
Yep.
00:24:05
Chris
Is this what I truly want? 1,000% of the time will be a satisfying, delightful summation of a storyline.
00:24:15
Chris
I just don't like reading about bullies for the 13 and a half hours leading up to it.
00:24:15
Nate Day
Yeah. Right.
00:24:21
Nate Day
Yeah, totally. Totally get it.
00:24:24
Chris
Yeah, really pleasant surprise with the amount that i now that's because the bar was at zero.
00:24:27
Nate Day
Good.
00:24:32
Chris
I expected to not enjoy it at all. But yeah, I don't know.
00:24:34
Nate Day
Sure.
00:24:37
Chris
Fun book. I wish I had more to tell you. I feel like the storyline's pretty cut and dry. Get crummy job, have miserable boss, make the right choice in the end.
00:24:42
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:24:46
Nate Day
and we're back talking about Devil Wears Prada.
00:24:49
Nate Day
This time I'm going to cover the film adaptation, which was released in 2006 by 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney. That company is basically defunct, so this is technically now a Disney movie.
00:25:03
Nate Day
Crazy.
00:25:04
Chris
So she's a Disney princess.
00:25:06
Nate Day
Kind of You keep saying that when there's no princesses in the story.
00:25:11
Chris
She'll always be a princess in my heart. I'll die on that hill.
00:25:14
Nate Day
Yeah, mine too, I think. And that she that we're referring to, of course, is Anne Hathaway, but also Meryl Streep is also a princess too.
00:25:21
Chris
Fair.
00:25:22
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:25:22
Chris
Yes.
00:25:23
Nate Day
Stanley Tucci was also in this movie. I know you're a big Tucci tucci head.
00:25:26
Chris
Yeah.
00:25:27
Nate Day
And this was Emily Blunt's sort of breakout role as well. So really kind of a cool...
00:25:33
Chris
Who does she play?
00:25:34
Nate Day
She plays Emily, the other assistant.
00:25:36
Chris
Oh!
00:25:37
Nate Day
And it sounds to me, based on what you just were talking about, that maybe Emily gets combined with one of the New York friends a little bit. Because she plays a pretty big...
00:25:48
Nate Day
role. She's a pretty central character to the movie.
00:25:51
Chris
This does not look like Emily Blunt. Oh my, I guess this was 20 years ago.
00:25:55
Nate Day
Yeah, well, right.
00:25:55
Chris
Whoa.
00:25:56
Nate Day
And she's got like a red wig on and everything.
00:25:58
Nate Day
But a lot of these people, well, maybe not a lot of these people. This was a big deal for Anne Hathaway because it was her first movie for an adult audience. She was pretty much because of like Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted, she was pretty much a kid's star or like young
00:25:58
Chris
Yeah.
00:26:07
Chris
Thank you.
00:26:14
Nate Day
adult star, I guess. And then, like I said, this is Emily Blunt's Big Break. Meryl Streep, really interesting. We'll talk about her more in a few minutes, but it's a a really pivotal moment in her career and in Hollywood politics. And she ended up actually getting an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Miranda Priestly, the titular devil.
00:26:38
Chris
Really?
00:26:39
Nate Day
Yeah. And she's, she's really good. Like i I watched a few interviews of her talking about why she made these tiny little choices that seem off the cuff and just like, she's just like chewing scenery.
00:26:51
Nate Day
And I'm like, wow, I can't believe he actually thought of that. Like, that's why she's the goat, you know, kind of crazy.
00:26:56
Chris
Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:27:01
Nate Day
The screenplay was written by a woman named Aline Brosh McKenna, who's done lots of rom-com stuff. This is by far and away her, her biggest title and directed by David Frankel.
00:27:12
Nate Day
Similar story, lots of TV and streaming. This is kind of his only major, major, major credit. Several screenwriters took a crack at the screenplay and McKenna ultimately aligned the most with Frankel's vision.
00:27:18
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:27:25
Nate Day
which deviated a little bit from the book in that the the main focus is Andy's conflict with Miranda.
00:27:35
Nate Day
Everything else is sort of a B storyline. Does that sound like the book?
00:27:40
Chris
Oh, that's accurate. Yeah, no, that's accurate.
00:27:41
Nate Day
Okay. Okay.
00:27:42
Chris
I was really trying to dig through and find what is more meaningful here because, yeah, just having a mean boss is not an exciting book discussion.
00:27:52
Nate Day
a story. Right. Well, and in that vein, this was or has always sort of been celebrated as sort of flipping the traditional quote unquote chick flick on its head because those movies usually center romance, right?
00:27:54
Chris
Yeah.
00:28:09
Nate Day
They're a romantic comedy for the most part.
00:28:09
Chris
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:28:10
Nate Day
And this is a workplace, I guess a workplace drama, workplace drama comedy, right?
00:28:15
Chris
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
00:28:16
Nate Day
But it's about women and was sort of marketed towards women. So it does sort of fit into that i don't I don't love the term chick flick for obvious reasons, but it does fit into that bucket.
00:28:26
Chris
huh
00:28:27
Nate Day
I don't know really what else to call it.
00:28:29
Chris
huh
00:28:30
Nate Day
The book was actually optioned before it was even published. So we've talked about that a few times here on the pod. just they Somebody comes across something and realizes that they've got a gold mine on their hands.
00:28:43
Chris
Wow.
00:28:45
Nate Day
The vice president of Fox, whose name I'm blanking on right now because this was 20 years ago, 20 plus years ago, read the first 100 pages of the book's manuscript and then an outline for the rest of the plot optioned the movie based on that.
00:29:04
Nate Day
Alone.
00:29:05
Chris
wow
00:29:06
Nate Day
Yeah. And then eventually, like I said, several screenwriters were taking a crack at at writing the screenplay. Once the book became a bestseller, they leaned on the book a lot more heavily than they were planning on.
00:29:17
Nate Day
It was going to be sort of a loose adaptation. But because people were really digging the book, they started to add more and more stuff from the book into screenplay.
00:29:26
Chris
Okay. I think it was like New York Times bestseller list for like six months straight immediately. I mean, it really did do quite well commercially.
00:29:37
Nate Day
yeah it did which is why it's so surprising to me that i was surprised this was a book because the movie is just titanic you know i mean it's just one of the movies that people are always watching and talking about and and feeling love for you know
00:29:53
Chris
Yeah. Yep.
00:29:59
Nate Day
All of that being said, there was a lot of resistance to the film being made. It took several years of development because it became very well known that it was inspired by working for Anna Wintour. And Hollywood just didn't want to risk pissing off somebody that was such a huge figure in both the fashion industries and the publication you know, journalism industries that they were really nervous about that. And, and because of how hard she's worked and, and the ways that she's really poised herself, Anna Wintour is an extremely imposing figure to piss off. I mean, you're, you're screwed if you do, uh, you know, it sounds silly to say that about the editor of a fashion magazine. I'm sure that there are people that are going to hear that.
00:30:48
Nate Day
and roll their eyes, but she is an extremely powerful person and influential person.
00:30:53
Chris
Yeah. No, I i actually read another book that goes into much more detail, obviously, because it is, in fact, just the fashion world.
00:31:01
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:31:01
Chris
In the Chifron Trenches. and And the gentleman who wrote that, that one is fully just biographical about living and working in that world. And he very much talks about Wintour the exact same way.
00:31:16
Nate Day
Oh, interesting. Well, and and one of the things that helped to get this movie made was actually casting Meryl Streep.
00:31:18
Chris
Yes.
00:31:25
Nate Day
They were thinking about several other women for the role because Meryl is not exactly known for comedies at this time. Pretty interesting considering i think you and I probably know her as a very funny woman.
00:31:38
Chris
Yeah.
00:31:38
Nate Day
actress but there were other women that had been in comedies that were being considered and casting someone with the gravity of Meryl Streep really helped to assuage Anna Wintour's anxieties and you know, that's, that's pretty flattering.
00:31:53
Nate Day
If you're told that the the character inspired by you is going to be played by one of the greatest to ever do it.
00:31:54
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:32:01
Nate Day
So interesting.
00:32:02
Nate Day
That's some of the industry politics I was talking about how they're able to use that casting to get this green light and get it, get it made and avoid, you know, tension and drama.
00:32:02
Chris
Absolutely.
00:32:03
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:32:13
Chris
Uh-huh. Do you know who else was being considered for the role?
00:32:17
Nate Day
The three names I saw that were listed on, i believe the movie's Wikipedia page were Michelle Pfeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who are both younger than Meryl Streep as well.
00:32:31
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:32:32
Nate Day
And then Glenn Close, who is often in the same conversations as Meryl Streep.
00:32:38
Nate Day
they
00:32:39
Chris
Yep.
00:32:39
Nate Day
I'm sure they've stolen roles from each other for probably their entire careers.
00:32:44
Chris
Decades. Yeah. Okay.
00:32:47
Nate Day
Frankel wanted the film to b sort of a comedy.
00:32:50
Nate Day
I don't know. Is the book funny at all? well Like, would you consider it a comedy book?
00:32:56
Chris
as As you were talking about the genre, I hadn't considered it before. It is a little anomalous in that sense. There certainly humorous parts, you know, that I chuckled at.
00:33:10
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:33:14
Chris
i don't know what I would have called it in terms of genre. It's like a dramedy, I guess.
00:33:19
Nate Day
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
00:33:20
Chris
Like exactly halfway between.
00:33:23
Nate Day
OK. Well, that's it's interesting that he was able to pick that and and pull that out of it because he really wanted the movie to take fashion seriously, but to the movie itself to be sort of silly, which is really where he lands.
00:33:24
Chris
i don't know.
00:33:30
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:33:39
Nate Day
He cited, there's a very famous fashion documentary called Unzipped,
00:33:40
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:33:44
Nate Day
that he said was sort of one end of the spectrum and then the other end of the spectrum was Zoolander, which I know is a favorite of yeah yours and Blair's very silly movie set in the world of fashion.
00:33:55
Nate Day
And you can sort of see how he you know did that. There's a lot of scenes that are sort of maximalist and over the top. And then you're like, well, they're complaining about, you know, two belts that look very similar or something like that.
00:34:09
Chris
Yes.
00:34:09
Nate Day
That's it's very silly.
00:34:09
Chris
It's an inherently silly argument.
00:34:11
Nate Day
But at the same time,
00:34:13
Chris
Yeah.
00:34:13
Nate Day
Right. But at the same time, it's an art form. And it's not at all silly, right?
00:34:18
Chris
Yes.
00:34:19
Nate Day
Like it's a really interesting dichotomy.
00:34:21
Chris
Yes.
00:34:21
Nate Day
And he walks that line really, really well. I also loved this fact that I found the screenwriter cited Don Rickles, the comedian Don Rickles, as an influence for Miranda's one-liners, one-liner insults specifically, which have now become very iconic.
00:34:35
Chris
a hu
00:34:37
Nate Day
I don't know how many come from the book, but one of the most quotable characters ever in film ever because she has all of these snippy one-liners to the can really knock a person down a couple pegs.
00:34:50
Chris
Yeah. Yep. And and they they are, it's coupled with a relative dearth of anything else said from her.
00:35:00
Nate Day
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Interesting. A pretty sizable hit at the box office earned $326 million on a budget of about $35 million.
00:35:10
Nate Day
So we've talked about how that is very clearly profitable.
00:35:11
Chris
Wow. Mm-hmm.
00:35:14
Nate Day
And i've I've read several reviews and essays about the movie and the the sort of thesis of the movie's success is that, or the thesis, you know, about why the movie is successful, is that whether or not
00:35:14
Chris
Mm.
00:35:30
Nate Day
you realize you're influenced by fashion or claim to not be interested in fashion. In some respect, you are. It's a facet of our culture and society that nobody can escape because it's been such a huge part of who we are since basically the dawn of time. its Clothes have been used as a form of expression, self-expression, right?
00:35:52
Nate Day
And so in some facet or another, even if you're
00:35:53
Chris
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:35:57
Nate Day
a dad in the Midwest who's wearing a shirt that says old Navy and a 12 year old pair of cargo shorts right now, there is, and and you could swear up and down that you don't give a shit about fashion. You don't know shit about fashion. You're you're wrong.
00:36:11
Nate Day
You know more than you realize. And that's why this movie works is because enough people are able to have that same conversation that we just had where we said, it's silly. They're arguing about two different blue belts.
00:36:25
Nate Day
But it's also not silly because it's art and it's a multi-million dollar industry, multi-billion dollar industry.
00:36:27
Chris
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:36:32
Chris
Right.
00:36:33
Nate Day
And there's a very famous...
00:36:33
Chris
And you went with me when i when we get our when we went and got all of our stuff for the wedding?
00:36:38
Nate Day
Yeah. yeah
00:36:40
Chris
Yeah, we took it very seriously.
00:36:41
Nate Day
Yes, we did. And Jack was just wearing that shirt the other day at the baby shower, actually.
00:36:46
Chris
Yeah.
00:36:47
Nate Day
Yeah. Hi, Jack. Anyway, there's also a very famous monologue in the, I believe it was written originally for the movie. I don't think there's a bit about the cerulean blue sweater in the book. Does that sound familiar at all?
00:37:03
Chris
Yeah.
00:37:07
Nate Day
Anne Hathaway, or I guess her character is Andy, wears a bright cerulean blue sweater to work one day. And she makes a or she she laughs when they are trying to decipher between two belts that look very similarly. She's sort of hovering in the back while Miranda and her team are putting together somebody's wardrobe for something. And she laughs at the belts looking very similar. And Miranda just takes her down with this awesome monologue about like, you have no idea why that color sweater was on the rack at target. And she goes all the way back to the popularization of that color and the style of the sweater and how much work went into even a fast fashion version of the sweater that, that Andy is.
00:37:54
Nate Day
You know, likely wearing and, that. that monologue has been hailed as sort of a masterpiece of explaining why fashion is important and, and such a cornerstone of our culture. But it's also been compared to discussions about like cultural appropriation.
00:38:11
Nate Day
You know, when we put on a Native American headdress for a Halloween costume, we don't understand the lineage and the, you know, steps zero to like 1099 to get us to making this this silly mistake that is cultural appropriation.
00:38:29
Nate Day
So really interesting monologue, really, really well written. i have no idea. i I sincerely doubt that she was thinking about cultural appropriation when she wrote it, but sometimes good art happens on accident, you know?
00:38:43
Nate Day
So congratulations to Ms.
00:38:43
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:38:45
Nate Day
McKenna. a pretty strong critical reception as well. It's not known as a masterpiece of a movie, but it it it does hold up really well, especially when you compare it to some of the other sort of dramedies of the time.
00:39:00
Nate Day
that That was a really popular genre in film at the time, and a lot of them sucked.
00:39:01
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:39:03
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:39:07
Nate Day
this and And this one walked away with two Oscar nominations, like I said, one for Streep and the other, of course, for costume design. It would be pretty embarrassing to not... have gotten that nomination.
00:39:19
Nate Day
So maybe the sequel will get that one as well. That'd be kind of fun.
00:39:23
Chris
I did wonder about that as well in terms of how how much focus was on the fashion in a print form.
00:39:25
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:39:30
Chris
i mean, of any book, this one was made to be turned into a movie.
00:39:34
Nate Day
Oh, really? Well, yeah, because it's a fashion is visual.
00:39:36
Chris
You know, in that regard.
00:39:37
Nate Day
Sure.
00:39:38
Chris
Exactly, exactly.
00:39:39
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:39:40
Chris
And
00:39:41
Nate Day
Cool.
00:39:42
Chris
I don't care how good your description is, me reading about this Prada bag.
00:39:47
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:39:48
Chris
and In this wonderful imagination world that I enjoy building while I read a book, that's just a little black square.
00:39:53
Nate Day
Yep.
00:39:56
Chris
That's empty.
00:39:57
Chris
I don't know what they're talking about.
00:39:57
Nate Day
Yep.
00:40:00
Nate Day
It's like pixelated.
00:40:02
Chris
Yeah. Oh, there are beads on it.
00:40:03
Nate Day
That's funny. Yeah.
00:40:04
Chris
And suddenly I'm picturing, like, some Halloween costume moccasins. Yeah, it's, yeah.
00:40:09
Nate Day
Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What I did think was really interesting that consensus among people in the fashion industry was extremely I guess not like non-existent.
00:40:20
Nate Day
It was very divisive amongst the fashion industry. Some people thought the movie was completely ridiculous. Others thought that, you know, it was, it was sort of fun and they could catch the wave and enjoy the movie without like grinding their teeth at inaccuracies.
00:40:34
Nate Day
And then there have been some other people that said that it was exactly their experience working in the fashion industry. So really interesting.
00:40:41
Chris
Wow.
00:40:42
Nate Day
Yeah. I'm curious if people are you know, being guarded or if people are being glib or if people are bending their perspective a little bit. Just sort of weird fact that I wanted to throw in there.
00:40:57
Nate Day
Wintour, like I said, is very knowledgeable about the fact that the movie is basically about her. She has publicly been pretty supportive of it. Sometimes she sort of brushes it off and says, like, it was funny and enjoyable. Like, it's a little bit of a backhanded compliment that it gets from her. She is rumored to personally very strongly dislike the movie, which I only share because i think it's very interesting that she's so front and center.
00:41:25
Nate Day
and the marketing of the second movie. they They pair her with Meryl Streep for a lot of marketing events. So I don't know that that rumor is true. It's just funny to me that this movie about like mistreatment in the workplace at a fashion industry publication you know has stirred up the rumor mill.
00:41:45
Nate Day
It's just kind of funny that the stars align and, and don't align there, but that's, that's basically it for the movie because it is such a cultural phenomenon.
00:41:47
Chris
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep.
00:41:53
Nate Day
So many people have seen it. It's memed beyond comparison. I hear people say that those Miranda one-liners constantly, it's just a huge part of like the tapestry that is our culture right now.
00:42:07
Nate Day
It's a big old square. right, right near the middle.
00:42:09
Chris
Yeah,
00:42:10
Nate Day
So that's why 20 years later, we're getting the sequel. Doesn't look great, but I'm going to be in the front row waving my flags anyway, because I'm here for a good time.
00:42:23
Chris
yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:42:25
Nate Day
And that's pretty much it for the movie. But what kind of discussion questions did you bring?
00:42:30
Chris
Yeah, well, along the lines of the movie, and I... This is quickly just becoming one that I ask you about lots of titles, which is annoying. But I kept wondering it the entire time in book form.
00:42:41
Nate Day
Sure.
00:42:43
Chris
So much of it this is just Andy's inner monologue to herself, our non omniscient narrator.
00:42:52
Nate Day
OK. Oh.
00:42:52
Chris
How on earth do they take that and turn it into a script? I mean, there's relatively little dialogue.
00:42:57
Nate Day
oh
00:43:01
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:43:03
Chris
And it's very effective for storytelling, but I was really having a hard time picturing how they get that to screen.
00:43:09
Nate Day
Yeah, there's a lot of Andy having conversations with other people, you know, for everything that for all the times that Miranda doesn't speak.
00:43:15
Chris
Okay.
00:43:19
Nate Day
Andy is speaking, you know, three or four times in the in the blank space there. So she runs like she does a lot of learning from Emily Blunt's character. who is named Emily, right?
00:43:30
Nate Day
The other, the other assistant.
00:43:31
Chris
Yes, Emily. Yep.
00:43:32
Nate Day
And then there's a lot of sort of decompressing and verbal processing with her boyfriend. And she has a couple of friends in New York that are basically just there for this very purpose to, to like provide exposition and, and an opportunity for
00:43:49
Chris
Yep.
00:43:50
Nate Day
Andy to provide exposition. So it's a very, very talky movie.
00:43:54
Chris
Okay.
00:43:54
Nate Day
Oh, Stanley Tucci too is just basically a sounding board the entire movie.
00:44:00
Chris
Yeah, who does he play?
00:44:00
Nate Day
Yeah. He, i think he's like their creative director. i don't know. He's, he's high up. I don't know enough about fashion publications to have like clocked what his position was, but his character, let me look up his name because I don't even know.
00:44:11
Chris
Yeah.
00:44:16
Nate Day
It's like not even important. You know what I mean?
00:44:19
Chris
I knew that he was in it, and as I was reading, I kept looking for, like, oh, yeah, this must be Stanley Tucci, and there was no one I could picture.
00:44:24
Nate Day
Oh, Nigel.
00:44:25
Chris
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.
00:44:30
Nate Day
He's basically Miranda's number two as far as have we're led to believe.
00:44:37
Nate Day
And that's an interesting bit of casting too because they looked at a lot of people that were fashion commentators, like people like hosts from the E! Network and things like that, people that weren't necessarily actors, but ended up going with Stanley Tucci don't really know why exactly, but yeah, I mean, he's he's great, but who wouldn't cast Stanley Tucci, you know?
00:44:56
Chris
awesome.
00:45:03
Chris
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:04
Nate Day
Yeah. Okay, so my questions, actually both of them, well, I don't know about both of them, at least this first one you've kind of answered already. Was Meryl Streep, I'm gonna try and rewrite it as I say it,
00:45:18
Nate Day
I know that you said Meryl Streep was stuck in your head as you were reading. Was there any moment where you were like, wow, Meryl Streep really did this or said this? Because I was so interested that she was potentially choice number four for this role and then ends up getting an Oscar nomination for it and is the reason it's greenlit. I'm like, there's just no world where it's not Meryl Streep.
00:45:42
Nate Day
I'm so interested if there was ever a moment while you were reading that that seemed like a crazy casting choice.
00:45:48
Chris
it's It's so unfortunate. It's just, as you said, such a cultural touchstone at this point. I cannot fathom picture.
00:45:54
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:45:58
Nate Day
Anybody?
00:45:58
Chris
Imagine. Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:03
Chris
I mean, I guess a kindred character in my mind would maybe be like Dame Judi Dench as M in the Pierce Brosnan era Bond movies.
00:46:20
Nate Day
Okay.
00:46:20
Chris
You know, so precise, so stringent.
00:46:24
Chris
These are the results I expect to see. you know Failure is not an option along those lines. But that's even that's grasping. i' i mean I think she probably would have done a great job at that role too. but
00:46:37
Nate Day
sure but it yeah
00:46:39
Chris
I don't know. It's it's so tough. No, truly, I can't picture anyone else.
00:46:43
Nate Day
well that's good i mean like i said the cards obviously came out the right way so it's sort of moot point i guess i just was curious
00:46:54
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. i It is interesting to me because the character of Andrea is the main character, and that feels much more like it could have been a number of individuals.
00:47:10
Nate Day
Yeah. Yeah. And there were a lot of people that were considered, I don't think Anne Hathaway was in the top five or six choices either.
00:47:12
Chris
Do you know what I mean?
00:47:19
Nate Day
Everybody, you know, they, they, they looked at like Kate Hudson, who was sort of the rom-com princess at the time.
00:47:20
Chris
Interesting. Interesting.
00:47:25
Nate Day
And, a lot of people just passed on it or, or couldn't do it, you know, couldn't fit it into their schedules and then worked out great for Anne Hathaway.
00:47:26
Chris
Yeah.
00:47:35
Nate Day
Like I said, it sort of turned her career into a new direction and,
00:47:36
Chris
Yeah,
00:47:40
Nate Day
And here we are in the year of Anne.
00:47:43
Chris
yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Yeah, it's so, this is why I don't like to see them first, because if I can get through the book first, then I can create these things.
00:47:48
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:47:52
Chris
I do the same thing when I'm learning new tunes. I listen to the track without the bass first and play what makes sense to me, and then go back and listen to what the original bass line was.
00:48:00
Nate Day
Oh.
00:48:03
Nate Day
OK.
00:48:03
Chris
Because if i I can come up with something of my own first, then I can meld them. If I've heard, you know, these iconic songs and movies feel exactly the same way to me, I can't get my brain out of that track.
00:48:07
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:48:16
Nate Day
Right. Totally.
00:48:18
Nate Day
hundred percent.
00:48:18
Chris
And this is the same way.
00:48:19
Chris
these These are the only two individuals that I can really picture there now
00:48:19
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:48:25
Chris
Where Night of the Seven Kingdoms, I did not necessarily feel that way because I had only watched a little bit of it and then read through them entirely.
00:48:32
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:48:33
Chris
I don't know.
00:48:34
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:48:35
Chris
i i I feel like it's just Meryl Streep. There is no... i don't know.
00:48:39
Nate Day
Interesting. Well, that's cool. I mean, you know, I've mentioned a few times, I think on Mike here that I listened to the big picture podcast, which most cinephiles do, and they just did the Meryl Streep Hall of Fame. They do this exercise every once in a while where they go through someone's entire filmography and choose 10 titles that are their Hall of Fame. And they had it obviously a really hard time.
00:49:04
Nate Day
choosing only 10, but this one was one that was just a slam dunk.
00:49:05
Chris
Oh, yeah, I bet. Mm-hmm.
00:49:09
Nate Day
They didn't even, I don't think they even really discussed it for that long.
00:49:10
Chris
Yep.
00:49:11
Nate Day
They were like, of course, Devil Wears Prada is in there.
00:49:14
Chris
Mm-hmm. You know what? I just saw a like a quarter of Beetlejuice. It was on at the bar last night.
00:49:23
Nate Day
Hmm.
00:49:24
Chris
i bet Catherine O'Hara would have done a good job at this.
00:49:27
Nate Day
She probably could have. she She was actually really good at oscillating between drama and comedy too. So that's actually a really good pick.
00:49:33
Chris
yeah yeah
00:49:37
Nate Day
Too bad she couldn't have been in the second one.
00:49:39
Chris
yeah well r.i.p by cat kate cat what do you call someone named katherine kate yeah okay my brain is not operating at full capacity
00:49:41
Nate Day
RIP.
00:49:49
Nate Day
Catherine.
00:49:53
Nate Day
What else do you have?
00:49:55
Chris
Now, this one, unfortunately, just like your question, we have discussed or touched on already a little bit. But in terms of content, the other question that kept coming up in my mind, did the fashion as the foremost content of the storyline make it in any way inaccessible?
00:50:20
Chris
do you?
00:50:23
Nate Day
No, not inaccessible.
00:50:24
Chris
Oh, that's funny.
00:50:25
Nate Day
I actually, when I sat down to watch oop when i sat down to watch this movie, for those that don't know, my background is in entertainment journalism, so I've reported on some of this stuff, so I know a little bit more than the average dude, you know, 30-ish-year-old dude.
00:50:44
Chris
Mm-hmm.
00:50:45
Nate Day
about the fashion industry, but really not, really not much. I mean, I couldn't look at a piece of clothing and tell you who made it or anything like that. But when I sat down, i was like, okay, I'm going to try and catch all of the things that I know that I only know because of my job.
00:50:53
Chris
Right.
00:51:03
Nate Day
You know, like I'm going to try and flag those for myself mentally. It didn't come up once because pretty much everything is that you need to know is a handful of names, which we do know, whether it's Prada or Gucci or,
00:51:18
Nate Day
I don't know, help me out with some other ones, Coach, I don't know.
00:51:20
Chris
Givenchy, Chanel, Saint Laurent.
00:51:23
Chris
lare
00:51:31
Nate Day
And that's it, you know, and that supposedly people like them. You know, we've all seen the photos from the runway where we're like, what the hell is going on there?
00:51:40
Chris
Yes.
00:51:40
Nate Day
but But that's because we're, you know, poor people that don't own nice clothing. But to answer your question, no, it was never inaccessible. I was waiting for moments for it to be inaccessible specifically and didn't come across any.
00:51:59
Nate Day
Yeah. And that, like I said, that was basically my second question too. How much does the book need you to know about fashion? Because in the movie you don't.
00:52:09
Chris
I think, yeah, slightly slightly more assumed knowledge. I would 100% agree with you. Yeah, just because I've never bought anything from Gucci doesn't mean I don't understand the implication.
00:52:22
Nate Day
Right.
00:52:22
Chris
You know, some jokes, like when when she says, whose shoes are you wearing? And Andy says, mine.
00:52:28
Nate Day
Yeah, right. Yeah.
00:52:32
Chris
First of all, it's a very Chris coded answer. It sounds like she's been like, what do you mean?
00:52:35
Nate Day
It really Yeah. yeah
00:52:43
Nate Day
yeah
00:52:46
Chris
Some things like when she's like so insistent on trying to track down the phone number for Carl Lagerfeld, like Again, prior to reading that very serious just memoir about the fashion industry, I did find it, if anyone's interested, The Chiffon Trenches by Andre Leon Talley.
00:53:00
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:53:06
Chris
Super, super cool book, actually.
00:53:08
Nate Day
I wrote his obituary.
00:53:11
Chris
Really?
00:53:12
Chris
Have we... I don't think we've talked about this. that It's an incredible book.
00:53:14
Nate Day
I don't know if we have.
00:53:18
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:53:18
Chris
Fascinating. And... Same thing, I kind of tried loosely to picture what of these things do I literally just know from that book.
00:53:27
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:53:27
Chris
But you're not you're not losing the plot. Especially, it was an expected judgment on my part that there would be some inaccessible content and somewhat pleasant surprise that that was not the case, if that makes sense.
00:53:38
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:53:41
Nate Day
Yeah. And the brilliance is that our character through which we're experiencing the story is also a newbie to fashion as well.
00:53:49
Chris
Yes.
00:53:50
Nate Day
Right. So she's learning like I didn't know what a lookbook was or whatever, you know, but neither did Andy.
00:53:51
Chris
Yes.
00:53:55
Chris
Right.
00:53:58
Chris
Uh-huh. And we get to learn it with her.
00:53:58
Nate Day
So that doesn't count. Yeah.
00:54:01
Chris
Yep.
00:54:01
Nate Day
Right.
00:54:02
Chris
Yep.
00:54:02
Nate Day
Cool.
00:54:03
Chris
Oh, that's funny. We ended up at the same question.
00:54:04
Nate Day
Who do you I know, just like we've done that a few times before, like from two different perspectives, but it's still kind of the same question.
00:54:10
Chris
Yep.
00:54:12
Nate Day
What, who do you recommend the book to though?
00:54:16
Chris
this sounds like such a cop-out answer. I apologize to anyone who feels that I'm not giving enough thought to this. At 23 years, especially the amount of time, I mean, we both remember when this was massive.
00:54:29
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:54:30
Chris
And I was, what, 12 when this was published? I had not even heard of Prada.
00:54:37
Nate Day
Right.
00:54:37
Chris
Like, then it truly would have been inaccessible. Truly, truly. If you have not read it by now, I don't think you're going to. And I don't think my recommendation is going to change that for you.
00:54:50
Chris
I think at this point, either you have seen the movie and loved it, already read the book, or already determined that's not for me.
00:54:50
Nate Day
Oh. Okay.
00:54:58
Chris
That being said, that is how I felt and I enjoyed it. But not enough, like now having finished it, knowing what I know, had we not been doing a podcast episode on it, I would not go back and choose to read it for the first time.
00:55:13
Nate Day
Sure. Sure. Okay.
00:55:15
Nate Day
That makes sense.
00:55:15
Chris
So I, yeah, I don't know who I would recommend it to.
00:55:20
Chris
Maybe someone that's like having a tough time at their job and needs to see like that it's possible to be more miserable. I don't know
00:55:27
Nate Day
There you go. There you go.
00:55:30
Chris
know. What about the movie? I'm
00:55:40
Chris
going to watch
00:55:41
Chris
Never, never.
00:55:42
Nate Day
That's just crazy.
00:55:42
Chris
I was watching nothing but James Bond and 80s music videos in that era.
00:55:48
Nate Day
Yeah, that that tracks. The movie, it's it so I'm in a similar boat, basically, where I i don't have like a group of people to recommend this to, except that I would encourage people that haven't seen it to set aside any notions they may have, thinking it's a chick flick or a fashion flick or anything like that, and to give it a go, because it has
00:56:08
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:56:15
Nate Day
It's just like, it's so it's endlessly rewatchable. So I know that people are already watching and rewatching and, it was very of the moment in 2006. So if you like films from that era, that sort of rom-com era, if you like Meryl Streep, like I said, this is a huge part of the sort of Canon that is Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
00:56:35
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:56:36
Nate Day
There's just not, I don't have a good recommendation either because it's, it's pretty broad. Like there's,
00:56:41
Chris
who
00:56:42
Nate Day
it's not at all niche who I would recommend this to. So basically, if you haven't seen it, watch it.
00:56:46
Chris
Yeah.
00:56:47
Nate Day
If you have seen it, rewatch it and go see the sequel.
00:56:51
Chris
Okay.
00:56:52
Nate Day
They got to get me on these press tours.
00:56:53
Chris
And then what, I mean, it it sounds like you would give it a pretty high rating.
00:56:57
Nate Day
Yeah, yeah, I actually rated it four stars.
00:56:58
Chris
didn't really know.
00:57:00
Nate Day
I think it's fun. it's It's like verging on camp. I don't think it's totally campy because I don't know if
00:57:07
Chris
Uh-huh.
00:57:07
Nate Day
things made in the 2000s can really be campy yet. Part of that is the way they age in culture, you know. But it it does walk the line very well, like I said, of taking itself too seriously and not seriously enough.
00:57:17
Chris
Yes.
00:57:23
Nate Day
It does that really quite beautifully Meryl Streep's performance is incredible some of it feels a little bit dated there's some needle drops that are like ninety s Madonna songs and you're kind of like those are not good anymore and uh but that's part of that like of the moment quality that I'm talking about in 2006 if you know if you're in the mood for some nostalgia this is a really good
00:57:27
Chris
Yep.
00:57:44
Chris
yes
00:57:50
Nate Day
pick too but like I said I think it walks a lot of lines really really well so I gave it four stars
00:57:56
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not far behind you going against my own scoring system.
00:58:02
Nate Day
okay okay right got it
00:58:04
Chris
This just feels like a 3.5 to me. Again, there aren't.5s on Goodreads, so in the strictest sense, it is absolutely a 3. I'm not actively mad that I read it. But the... The more thought that I gave the the scene with her deciding, do I leave Paris Fashion Week and go see Lily in the hospital or not, basically on its own bumped up the overall score for me because there was something to grab onto and chew on in what was otherwise kind of just a...
00:58:32
Nate Day
Hmm. and Okay.
00:58:40
Chris
flirty, whimsical, serious, not serious, it's fine in terms of a storyline.
00:58:43
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:58:45
Chris
If it were on solely that merit, it's just too far out of my wheelhouse. And I try not to be down on books for that because we all have the particular genres and things that we enjoy.
00:58:57
Chris
And just because I didn't enjoy this, that doesn't mean it's a poorly written book.
00:58:58
Nate Day
Yeah.
00:59:02
Chris
That means it's not, I'm not the target audience.
00:59:04
Nate Day
Yeah, sure. Yeah. And a three is I think, a positive rating.
00:59:07
Chris
So very, yeah.
00:59:09
Nate Day
I think, yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
00:59:10
Chris
Three is fine. Yep. i want it let's see Let's see what the Goodreads average is.
00:59:16
Nate Day
I was surprised on Letterboxd. It has a 3.8 average, 3.8 average.
00:59:22
Chris
but Okay, yeah. I kind of would have expected that to be higher.
00:59:26
Nate Day
I mean, there are always going to be people that watch it and say that it's a a shitty 2006 rom-com and they won't be able to look at.
00:59:26
Chris
Oh my goodness. Three.
00:59:31
Chris
Of course. Of course.
00:59:34
Nate Day
You should, even if you don't watch the movie, and I'm talking to Chris as much as anybody else here, you you really should look up the Cerulean Blue Sweater monologue because it just, for for a brief second, you're like, wait, am I into fashion?
00:59:45
Chris
Oh, just that scene.
00:59:48
Nate Day
Because it's so well written that you're like, wait a second, that's cool as hell.
00:59:52
Nate Day
You know?
00:59:53
Chris
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:53
Nate Day
And anything that does that points me.
00:59:54
Chris
I am gonna... The second we're done recording, I'm gonna go watch this
00:59:59
Nate Day
Blair's going to be so mad if you watch it without her.
01:00:02
Chris
this. She'll just get home and make me run it back.
01:00:04
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:00:04
Chris
So maybe I'll be watching this twice today.
01:00:07
Nate Day
Well, I'll watch for the double log on your letterbox.
01:00:10
Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:12
Nate Day
Cool. Well, next up we have, I think an exciting one. are you excited or are you dreading it?
01:00:18
Chris
I am excited. No, why would I be dreading it?
01:00:19
Nate Day
Okay, good. I don't know because we haven't really touched base about it yet. is all We're doing Animal Farm by George Orwell, which has had surprisingly fewer film adaptations than I predicted.
01:00:26
Chris
Honestly?
01:00:33
Nate Day
Although maybe maybe not since it's all animals.
01:00:34
Chris
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:36
Nate Day
So you know there's a new one coming out directed by Andy Serkis. So it'll be an interesting conversation for sure.
01:00:41
Chris
Incredible.
01:00:45
Nate Day
Thank you for joining us for this conversation about the devil wears product. Chris, what are you, what are you wearing right now? Is it Prada?
01:00:53
Chris
Uh, this is a Howler Bros, Pearl Snap. Got it for 25 cents at a thrift store in Thailand.
01:00:57
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:01:00
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:01:00
Chris
My favorite shirt.
01:01:02
Nate Day
Yeah.
01:01:03
Chris
Who, whose, whose underwear are you wearing, Nate?
01:01:06
Nate Day
well mine, but, uh, yeah.
01:01:09
Chris
I don't need your glib response. I cannot attempt a Miranda Priestly accent.
01:01:15
Nate Day
That's all right. Just let Meryl do it. Let Meryl handle it.
01:01:18
Chris
Yep.
01:01:18
Nate Day
She's got it on lock. Okay, thank you.
01:01:20
Chris
Does she do a British accent for the movie?
01:01:22
Nate Day
It's not British. No, it's not even an accent, but I mean, she's so good. She sounds different in every movie.
01:01:26
Chris
Oh, okay. Yeah, okay, okay.
01:01:28
Nate Day
You know what I mean? you You'll appreciate it when you see it.
01:01:32
Chris
Okay.
01:01:32
Nate Day
Thank you for joining us for this conversation. We look forward to our next episode. Have a good one.
01:01:38
Chris
Bye!