Anne Hathaway’s role in The Devil Wears Prada was originally offered to this A-lister
Things could have been very different.
Kate Hudson has revealed how she was originally offered the role of Andrea ‘Andy’ Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada.
The iconic 2006 comedy-drama saw wannabe journalist Andy butt heads against cinema’s most horrible boss – the terrifying Miranda Priestly, as played by Meryl Streep.
The role was famously played by Anne Hathaway, who won acclaim for her performance as the unlucky junior assistant turned scapegoat.
Meanwhile, star Meryl won an Oscar for her role as Miranda – said to be inspired by Vogue legend Anna Wintour – while the film went on to inspire a stage musical and rumours of a belated sequel.
However, things were almost very different – and the Almost Famous actress, 45, has revealed how she was originally approached to play Anne’s part in the film.
Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict meant that she was unable to do it, and she ultimately missed out on the part. Oh, what could have been.
Kate revealed that she was forced to drop out due to a scheduling conflict (Picture: Variety) The role ultimately went to Princess Diaries star Anne Hathaway (Picture: Shutterstock)Speaking on Capital Breakfast, Kate described the experience of missing out on The Devil Wears Prada as ‘a bad call.’
She continued: ‘It was a timing thing, it was one of those things where I couldn’t do it, and I should’ve made it happen, and I didn’t. That was one where when I saw it I was like, “Ugh”.’
At the time, the star would have been filming the Owen Wilson comedy You, Me and Dupree – which may have caused the scheduling conflict responsible.
‘It’s funny, it’s waves of things that are happening and people shooting at different times. It’s not like you don’t do them because you don’t want to do them. It’s like, oh, you’re doing something else.
‘And it just sucked, you know?’ Kate added.
Kate currently stars in the Netflix comedy series Running Point (Picture: Netflix)Last year, it was reported that Disney had begun work on a sequel to the film, with original stars Meryl and Emily Blunt expected to return.
Puck reported that the film would follow magazine boss Miranda as she struggled to adapt to the decline of traditional print media – clashing with Emily Charlton, who is now an executive at a luxury fashion group.
Original screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna is reportedly on board with the project, although star Anne is not thought to be involved.
Star Meryl Streep is expected to return for a belated sequel… minus Anne (Picture: Shutterstock) Comment nowIs a Devil Wears Prada sequel a good idea?Comment NowOriginal director David Frankel previously revealed to Metro.co.uk that other names in the running to play Andy included Scarlett Johansson and Kirsten Dunst.
David said: ‘Annie [Hathaway] was actually the first choice and one of the last choices. She was the first and only actress I ever met for the part and then negotiations with her bogged down while we were developing the project. And that’s when the studio said, “Well, let’s explore other options.”
‘Rachel McAdams [was who] the studio wanted, I think they offered it to her multiple times, Scarlett Johansson, Kirsten Dunst.
‘[It was] a lot of terrific actresses and kind of surprisingly, they all turned us down. And some of them even turned us down after Meryl was involved, it was a bit surprising. And I’m just glad that we circled all the way back to Annie because she was the right one.’
Meryl played fashion media magnate Miranda Priestly (Picture: 20th Century Fox)The director also spoke about chances of a sequel to the film – claiming that it would never happen.
‘There was a little bit of talk a couple of times – once after the movie was such a big hit 15 years ago,’ the director revealed in 2022.
He continued: ‘We all got on a conference call to discuss it and it was easily decided that that was a terrible idea.
‘We had told this story, these characters were very complete in the way that they had appeared in this film and we had no imagination for where the story would go.’
Anne was 23 when she appeared in The Devil Wears Prada (Picture: Shutterstock)Speaking to The View the same year, star Anne also dismissed the idea of a sequel.
‘I don’t know if there can be. I just think that movie was in a different era,’ she said.
‘Now, everything has gone so digital and that movie centered around the concept of producing a physical thing. It’s just very different now.’
In February, co-star Emily told the Happy Sad Confused Podcast: ‘Sometimes things should be cherished and preserved in this bubble and it’s OK.‘
She continued: ‘And I think — didn’t Meryl say something funny about it? They asked her about it, “Would she ever do a sequel?” and she went, “Yeah, if I don’t have to lose the weight.”
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