In the 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada,” working at the fictional magazine “Runway” was a job thousands of girls would kill for. But was the publication’s editor-in-chief, the formidable Miranda Priestly, based on Anna Wintour?
The longtime “Vogue” editor has her own thoughts on the movie, which was based on a 2003 novel of the same name by her former assistant at the magazine, Lauren Weisberger.
It’s “for the audience and for the people I work with to decide if there are any similarities between me and Miranda Priestly,” Wintour told the BBC while attending a musical adaptation of the film in London on Dec. 1.
She added that she doesn’t “really think about” her public persona and that her main concern is the “creative aspect” of her job.
Weisberger, who was Wintour’s assistant for a year, shared some insider tidbits about her book in a 2010 interview with The Daily Mail. She said Priestly, played by Meryl Streep in the movie, “wasn’t a one-to-one portrayal of Wintour. But of course my time at Vogue informed the book; there’s no denying that.”
She also discussed her own similarities to protagonist Andy Sachs, played in the film by Anne Hathaway. Weisberger said she knew she was “tall and thin,” but still felt “short and fat” during her tenure at Vogue.
“And unlike Andy I couldn’t force myself to wear high heels,” Weisberger recalled. “It was expected of me, but I ran all day, all over the office, up and down the building 1,000 times and to Starbucks six times a day, so there was no way I could manage even a 2in heel.”
Speaking to the BBC, Wintour also cleared up rumors that no one ever tells her “no.”
“That is absolutely untrue,” she said. “They often say no, but that’s a good thing. No is a wonderful word.”
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In July, Variety broke the news that a “Devil Wears Prada” sequel is being developed by Disney.