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Anne Hathaway comments on the popular The Devil Wears Prada theory that Nate is the true villain of the movie. The 2006 classic stars Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Adrien Grenier, and was major hit in the early 2000s. The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of aspiring journalist Andy (Hathaway), who lands what seems to be a dream job at a prestigious fashion magazine. However, when she gets there, the job is not all she thought it would be, as she suddenly finds herself as a personal assistant to cold and demanding editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, played brilliantly by Streep and inspired by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
In the movie, Miranda appears to be the obvious villain, making Andy's life a living hell. Instead of writing stories as she so desperately wanted, Hathaway's Andy finds herself doing absurd tasks and getting more and more isolated from friends and family, as her job takes up all of her time. For the past sixteen years, though, fans of The Devil Wears Prada have debated tirelessly whether the real villain of the movie is actually Nate, Andy's boyfriend who is less than supportive of her as she navigates her new job.
In the most recent episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Hathaway was asked about her thoughts on the popular fan theory. However, to everyone's surprise, the actor does not agree with the fans when it comes to Nate:
I think that they were both very young and figuring things out, and he did behave like a brat, but I also behaved like a brat in my 20s and I hopefully grew out of it and I think that that’s what we all do. I wouldn’t want to be defined by my worst moment in my 20s, certainly, so I don’t hold Nate as a villain, actually.
Is Nate Really The Villain In The Devil Wears Prada?
The popular theory says that Nate is the true villain in Devil Wears Prada because he was extremely unsupportive of his girlfriend during a very important moment of her life. Working at Runway Magazine for an entire year could open very important doors for Andy professionally, so she decided to brave through it because it was essential to her at that moment in time. Throughout the movie, Nate shows himself to be not only a brat but condescending and unsupportive, behaving like an immature teenager - instead of the adult he already was - when it came to the demands of Andy's new job.
Of course, Miranda is the obvious villain in The Devil Wears Prada, but it was through her cold and demanding ways that Andy grew and developed further professionally and into a better version of herself. Miranda's methods may have been a little unorthodox and borderline cruel, but at the end of the day, Andy came out better and stronger at the other end of this. Nate, on the other hand, showed zero support in regard to anything related to Andy's job, and behaved like a selfish, self-involved guy, trying to get Andy to focus on him instead of focusing on her career. Hathaway may be willing to give Nate a break, but most fans are not, and they have every right not to be.
Source: Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen