Anne Hathaway Wasn’t The First Choice For ‘The Devil Wears Prada’?

Did you know that Anne Hathaway was not the first actress chosen to play the role of Andy in The Devil Wears Prada? Here’s more about this.Was Anne Hathaway not the first pick for The Devil Wears Prada? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Yep, the role of Andrea “Andy” Sachs almost went to seven other actresses before Hathaway made it her own. During a virtual appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Anne spilled the tea, revealing she was the ninth choice for the part. “I will give you some tea: I was the ninth choice for The Devil Wears Prada. But I got it! Hang in there, never give up,” she told a contestant. And honestly, can you imagine anyone else crushing the role like she did?

So, who was the top pick? Rachel McAdams. Hot off hits like The Notebook and Mean Girls, McAdams was Fox 2000 Pictures’ dream Andrea. But she just wasn’t feeling it. “We offered it to Rachel McAdams three times,” director David Frankel told Entertainment Weekly. “The studio was determined to have her, and she was determined not to do it.” McAdams later explained her decision to Bustle: “It wasn’t quite jiving with my personality and what I needed to stay sane.”

With McAdams out, the hunt for Andy Sachs heated up. The studio lined up a killer roster of stars—Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, even Kate Hudson—but none sealed the deal. Enter Anne Hathaway, who wasn’t just waiting around for a miracle. She etched “hire me” into the Zen sand garden of a Fox exec. Bold? Oh, absolutely. Effective? Clearly.

Based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 bestseller, The Devil Wears Prada, gave us a juicy peek into the high-stakes fashion world. Loosely inspired by Weisberger’s time as an assistant to Vogue’s Anna Wintour, it had Meryl Streep stepping into the stilettos of Miranda Priestly, the ice-cold editor-in-chief of Runway. As the wide-eyed Andy Sachs, Hathaway captured the grind of navigating Miranda’s brutal standards, giving us a journey everyone could enjoy.

By 2006, the movie didn’t just debut—it owned. Raking in over $300M worldwide, it turned Hathaway into a star and cemented Streep as a Hollywood goddess. And let’s not forget Emily Blunt, who brought sass and snark as the senior assistant, Emily Charlton, adding even more sparkle to this iconic lineup—total magic.

McAdams might’ve passed, but Anne Hathaway proved she was born to play Andy. As Meryl Streep once said about Hathaway, “She was the right choice.” And honestly? It’s hard to imagine anyone else in that iconic Chanel blazer.

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