For the first time since Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling novel “The Devil Wears Prada” was published more than two decades ago, the real-life inspiration behind Miranda Priestly’s antagonistic senior assistant Emily Charlton is speaking out. Celebrity stylist Leslie Fremar came forward on the latest episode of Vogue’s “The Run-Through” podcast to declare herself the real Emily ahead of the release of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Emily Blunt plays the character in the movie franchise.
“I know I am. I am Emily,” Fremar told Vogue boss Chloe Malle, who has taken over for Anna Wintour as editor at the iconic fashion publication. The character of Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep in an Oscar-nominated performance, is based on Wintour. Weisberger (the real Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway) served as her junior assistant and used her experiences at Vogue as the basis for 2003’s “Devil Wears Prada” book. Fremar hired Weisberger and worked alongside her for eight months, just like Emily and Andy in the film.
“I definitely told [Lauren] a million girls would kill for the job,” Fremar said (via People), quoting one of the movie’s most iconic lines. “That was definitely my line because I actually really believed that, and I knew that she didn’t necessarily wanna be there.”
Fremar remembered getting a call from Wintour’s office when the Vogue icon caught wind that Weisberger had written a book.
“I was petrified. [Wintour] said, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger? And I said, ‘She was your junior assistant. And she’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us, and you’re worse than me,’” Fremar remembered. “I wanted to, like, ask more questions, but you can’t really ask her that many questions.”
“It just felt like this exposure,” Fremar added about the book. “Even though someone obviously advised her to make it fiction, it was really based off of a lot of things that, you know, I lived, she lived… I probably was not very nice, and I probably was high-strung because I felt like I was having to do her job as well. So for me, that was really frustrating. I think she was probably just sitting there writing a book and not necessarily taking the job as seriously as I did.”
Fremar said the book “felt like a betrayal” when it was released and “we never talked again after she left,” referring to Weisberger. But Fremar did get a chance to speak to Blunt, whose role as Emily in the first “Devil Wears Prada” movies served as the actor’s Hollywood breakthrough.
“I said to her, I was like, ‘I just need to let you know, I’m Emily,’ ” Fremar said. “She was not that interested, to be honest. I thought I was gonna get this, like, huge reaction. Like, no. It was like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
Listen to Fremar’s full interview on “The Run-Through” podcast here. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” opens in theaters May 1.
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