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“Well, I happen to think you look great always.”
Okay, so hear me out - but what if Nate
actually is not the true villain
of The Devil Wears Prada? In 2016,
a BuzzFeed article called out the main character
Andy’s boyfriend, Nate, out for being a textbook
unsupportive partner, “You got a job
at a fashion magazine? What is it,
a phone interview?” and since then
it’s been open season, with countless articles
and think pieces dedicated to how
he holds Andy’s career back, and is way worse
than the supposed villain of the movie,
exacting fashion-magazine editor Miranda Priestly.
In Entertainment Weekly’s oral history of the movie
for its fifteenth anniversary, even the actor who played Nate,
Adrian Grenier, agreed with this interpretation,
saying: “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.”
“I wouldn’t care if you were out there
pole dancing all night, as long as you did it
with a little integrity.” Our collective rush
to see Nate as the true villain reflected the cultural moment
of the late 2010s: as #Me-Too concerns
began to dominate the zeitgeist, working woman Andy’s resilience
and work ethic were seen as enviable,
and Miranda’s cruelty was portrayed as an unfortunate necessity
to a woman’s professional success. “Ok she’s tough,
but if Miranda were a man, nobody would notice
anything about her except how great she is
at her job.” However, today’s focus
has shifted increasingly toward other components
of the picture The Devil Wears Prada depicts,
like the toxicity of Runway’s hustle culture,
the dangers of burnout, and the problems with self-serving,
commercial feminism or a “Girl Boss” frame of mind.
Through this lens, Nate’s actions read more like
concern for Andy’s wellbeing, and a desire for her
to strive for a better work-life balance.
Here’s our take on why it’s time
to give Nate some credit because he was
(maybe, just a little bit) right all along.
“I wanted to say that you were right,
about everything.”
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Throughout the film, Andy deflects criticism
of her behavior with the excuse:
“I didn’t have a choice.” To escape blame
for buying into a toxic workplace culture,
she makes it seem like she has no agency
over what her job compels her to do.
Nate calls her out for this: “That’s your answer
for everything lately, I didn’t have a choice,
like this job was forced on you.” In reality,
not only does Andy have a choice, but she makes choices that
negatively impact her relationships, her life outside of work,
and her conception of herself as a person with integrity.
One of the things Nate gets criticized for most
is his reaction to Andy missing his birthday party
for a last-minute work benefit, “There was a lot going on,
and I didn’t have a choice.” -- I’m going to bed.”
but here Andy does choose to put
her toxic job above him and doesn’t really think about
his feelings much in the process. It’s true that
she doesn’t plan this and only goes to the benefit
when it’s clear that Emily is too sick
to go by herself, but she doesn’t make
a genuine effort to set a boundary with Miranda
and prioritize her personal plans. In fact,
she soon becomes excited to be there,
and rather than leaving at the earliest opportunity,
Andy embraces the event as her coming-out ball,
the moment she’s finally arrived in the fashion world
that she previously wanted no part of.
“Andy you look so chic.” “Aw thanks Em.”
This is also where the roots of her flirtatious relationship
with Christian begin to grow, and when he insults Nate
right in front of her, she doesn’t say anything
to spurn his advances. “If it weren’t
for the stupid boyfriend I’d have to whisk you away
right here and now.” “Do you actually
say things like that to people?” Given all that,
is Nate’s reaction really that unreasonable or unrelatable?
On a broader level, the condemnation of Nate
is focused around the idea he’s unsupportive of Andy’s career --
an argument that is backed up by signs
of admittedly misogynistic views about the fashion industry.
“Why do women need so many bags.” “Shut up.”
“You have one, you put all your junk in it,
and that’s it, you’re done!”
However, his discouraging attitude
toward her job is rooted in the fact
that Andy’s Runway gig is not directly relevant
to the journalism career she actually desires.
At first, Nate is practical about the fact
she has to take a position tangentially related to her dream job,
as are all of Andy’s friends. “To jobs that pay the rent.”
“To jobs that pay the rent!” But he soon recognizes
that it’s taking her away from her core values
and ideal work path, well before Andy realizes this
for herself. “You used to say this
was just a job, you used to make fun
of the Runway girls, now you’ve become one of them.”
Nate also never puts his own occupation
above his relationship with Andy, despite working as a trainee chef -
a position notorious for long hours and hectic schedules.
True, he should have
more patience with her while she’s going through
a transitional phase, but he’s right
when he says that Andy is prioritizing the job
she claims not to really care about at the expense of everything else.
“In case you were wondering, the person whose calls
you always take, that’s the relationship you’re in.
I hope you two are very happy together.”
Ironically, it’s Miranda who ultimately vindicates
Nate’s feelings when she asserts that Andy’s
“I didn’t have a choice” complaints are nothing but excuses.
“I didn’t have a choice.” “Oh no you chose,
you chose to get ahead.” Hearing the words
from her dark mentor’s mouth is the wake up call Andy needs
to grasp what path she’s going down,
and to consider whether it’s truly what she wants.
It’s important here that Andy makes her own decision,
without Nate, to leave Runway behind
and stop herself from becoming the next ruthless Miranda
who gets ahead by any means necessary
and steps on a series of competitors along the way.
“I turned my back on my friends
and my family, and everything I believed in,
and for what?” But it’s hard to blame him
for foreseeing the lonely future she was designing for herself,
and calling it from the start. The whole environment
of Runway exemplifies a “what doesn’t kill you
makes you stronger” attitude. Miranda has inspired a culture
of fear among her staff, “She’s on her way.
Tell everyone!” “Alright everyone,
gird your loins!”, and they eventually learn
to inflict awful treatment on themselves and others
in order to stand out and progress within the industry.
Even when Andy eventually leaves that environment,
the final moments of the film imply that
she’s benefited greatly from this cutthroat learning experience;
after all it’s Miranda’s education,
and her reference, that gets Andy a new job in journalism.
“I got a fax from Miranda Priestly herself.”
“If I don’t hire you, I’m an idiot.”
But all along, Nate rails against this mindset
that a boss is entitled to completely take over
their employees’ personal lives. And today’s culture
is increasingly backing up Nate’s point of view,
with movies like The Assistant shining a spotlight
on how not-okay much of the behavior
we’ve long tolerated from powerful bosses truly is
“[Over the phone] I'm not gonna yell at you.
Am I yelling? No...
Because you're not someone even worthy of that.”
In reality, the what doesn’t kill you
part of the aphorism also doesn’t hold weight,
with a study from the World Health Organisation
finding that overwork (defined as working
more than 54 hours per week) actually kills three quarters
of a million people each year. “Pick up the polaroids
from the lingerie shoot. Have the brakes checked on my car.”
And in addition to the psychological effects
of unmanageable stress, Christine Ro explains that
overwork can lead to long-term physiological damage,
writing, “those logging long hours
may be sleeping little, barely exercising,
eating unhealthy foods and smoking and drinking to cope.”
We see this most visibly through Emily,
who starves herself for her job, “I’m on this new diet,
it’s very effective, I don’t eat anything,
and when I feel like I’m about to faint,
I eat a cube of cheese.” and gets hit by a car
because she’s so distracted by her unreasonable to-do list.
But Andy soon adopts this abusive work ethic as well --
proving that it’s a cultural problem rather than an individual one;
Runway rules its employees with fear of what will happen
if they can’t keep up. “One time an assistant
left the desk, because she sliced her hand open
with a letter opener, and Miranda missed Lagerfeld.”
“She now works at TV Guide.” To Nate’s credit,
at first he’s very caring toward Andy,
pouring her wine and making her late night snacks.
But he wants her to see that she doesn’t have to put up
with a toxic workplace in order to
forge a career in journalism. When she first considers
quitting her job, his reaction isn’t to gloat,
make fun or say “I told you so,”
but instead to celebrate with her. “Andy, good for you.
Congratulations, you’re free.” He recognises that Andy,
maybe for the first time in the movie,
has made a choice that puts her health and wellbeing
above any vague career-related promises. “I went to Dean & De Luca,
they charge $5 a strawberry there, but I figure since
you quit your job, we should celebrate.”
Ultimately, today there’s been a backlash
against the kind of hustle culture that Runway Magazine typifies,
not just from a mental health perspective but from a capitalist perspective too.
Research from Oxford University in 2019
found that workers are 13% more productive when they’re happy,
and “happy” isn’t exactly the first word you would use
to describe the Runway staff. The narrative arc of
The Devil Wears Prada hinges on Andy’s transformation
from ignorant fashion novice, “Both those belts
look exactly the same to me.”, to fabulous, resourceful fashionista.
For the audience this signals how Andy
is overcoming adversity and beginning to thrive
in her new environment, but for Nate,
it signals she’s becoming a completely different person
from the one he was in a relationship with.
“Just own up to it, and then we can stop pretending
like we’ve got anything in common anymore.”
One way this manifests is through food,
which is very personal to Nate given his line of work.
The first act of love we see him perform for Andy
is making her a late-night grilled cheese sandwich.
However, it only takes one day of work
for Andy to reject his offer to feed her.
“I’m not even hungry anymore.” Her changing her eating habits
is the first step in Andy becoming a “runway girl”,
which is unsurprising given the negative attitude
toward food at the magazine. Before she is even officially hired,
Nigel makes a loaded comment about smelling Andy’s breakfast.
“Did someone eat an onion bagel?”
And at lunch,
Nigel again criticises Andy for...well,
eating lunch. “You do know that cellulite
is one of the main ingredients of corn chowder.”
But Andy soon buys into this culture, seeing weight loss as a way
to measure her success in the fashion publishing world.
“You bet your size six ass.” “Four.”
Andy’s psychological transformation coincides with her
physical transformation - something that Nate also sees
as evidence that she is becoming a different person.
“Same Andy, better clothes.” “I liked the old clothes.”
Interestingly, the film’s screenwriter
Aline Brosh McKenna has said that Nate’s role is,
in most film and TV, a “‘girlfriend’ part...
That’s a part that a lot of women end up playing,
the ‘why aren’t you home more,’ the naggy wife.
I have to say, that character was
the biggest challenge to write, and oddly,
the character he and I talked about the most,
because we wanted to make sure he wasn’t a pain in the ass,
but he is the person who is trying to say,
‘Is this who you want to be morally?” Of course,
Nate’s reaction to Andy’s physical and mental shift
isn't the most mature. Instead of talking about
his feelings with Andy, he whines, pouts,
and plays the victim. “Your job sucks
and your boss is a wacko.” And he also doesn’t express that
the conditions she’s working under are bad for her
as an individual; instead he just voices his complaints
as they relate to their relationship. But his immature reactions
don’t completely devalue the things he’s right about,
and most of us can relate to not acting like our best selves
when we feel hurt by or concerned about people we love.
Ultimately Nate and Andy both want the same things:
to have successful careers and a successful relationship.
Andy’s biggest failing is not knowing
how to strike that balance, while Nate struggles with having
the emotional maturity to troubleshoot their relationship.
One of the most striking things about the Devil Wears Prada
is just how many potential villains there are.
There’s Christian, the skeevy journalist
who tries to seduce Andy through a mixture of professional clout,
and old fashioned negging. “You’ll never survive Miranda.”
Andy’s friends, who are just as unsupportive
as Nate’s accused of being. “This glamazon
who skulks around on corners with some random hot fashion guy?
I don’t get her.”] Emily, who’s pathologically competitive
and only comes around to Andy when her coworker
gifts her clothes from Paris. Jacqueline Follet,
the editor of French runway whose eyes are firmly focused
on Miranda Priestley’s job. And Miranda herself,
who for all her admirable success as a businesswoman,
today represents some of the flaws of “Girlboss feminism”,
treating her staff terribly and throwing Nigel --
arguably the most likeable character in the film --
under a bus. “When the time is right
she’ll pay me back.” “You sure about that?”
In the end, The Devil Wears Prada is too nuanced
to label any one person its only villain,
and is more interested in showing how all these people
are driven to behave badly because they’re part of
a noxious work culture. Andy’s victory is extracting herself
from this culture and mindset -- finding success without
having to sacrifice herself. She represents a new way,
where it’s possible to be great at one’s job
without being a terrible person or living your whole life
at your desk. Today we’ve arguably come full circle
in our cultural shifts toward being able
to appreciate this message of the movie as it’s intended,
and to hear Nate as a kind of voice
of reason and morality in Andy’s head as she
starts heading down a path that, deep down,
she ultimately knows isn’t the right destination for her.
“I see a great deal of myself in you.”
“I don’t think I’m like that.” By the end of the film
it’s clear that both Nate and Andy’s immaturity
led to the fracturing of their relationship.
Though they eventually reconcile, the audience
can’t know for sure whether the two
end up together after the credits roll,
when Nate is a sous chef in Boston
and Andy is a journalist in New York.
Regardless, it’s clear that Andy doesn’t blame Nate
for his behavior. Nate is glad Andy is back
to being the person he fell in love with,
and Andy understands that, in the end,
Nate just wanted what was best for her. “We might be able
to figure something out.”
“You think?” “Yeah.”
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