More than 20 years after the release of the novel “The Devil Wears Prada,” a stylist publicly says that she was the real-life inspiration for the pretentious assistant character, Emily.
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Leslie Fremar told Tuesday’s episode of “The Run-Through with Vogue” podcast that she was a first assistant for Vogue’s Anna Wintour and helped hire author Lauren Weisberger. She insisted that she knew she was the inspiration for Emily, played by actor Emily Blunt in the popular film.
She said she learned about the 2003 book after moving into the magazine’s fashion department and had gotten a call that Wintour wanted to see her.
“So then I went into her office, and she said, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger?'” recalled Fremar, who is now a celebrity stylist. “And I said, she was your junior assistant … She’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us and you’re worse than me.'”
The character of Emily is a caricature of a “mean girl” who serves as a foil to the novel’s main character, Andy Sachs, who starts working at a high-profile fashion magazine, “Runway.” Emily works as the first assistant to the editor-in-chief, Miranda Priestly, who, at the time, many speculated was modeled after Wintour.
Andy has little interest in the world of fashion, however, much to Emily’s disdain.
Fremar said she read an early copy of the novel, which had been given to Wintour, and described that version as being “quite mean.” She believes an editor softened some of the writing and steered it away from what Fremar described as a “dark” portrayal of their former workplace.
“I think what got put into the world is a much nicer, lighter version of what she actually wrote,” Fremar said. “So I think that’s what kind of lives in my mind because that’s what ended up being put out there. But I remember feeling like it was a betrayal at the time.”
A representative for Weisberger did not immediately return NBC News’ request for comment.
Fremar added that there were many moments in the novel and film that she recognized in her own life, as well as lines she had personally said.
“I definitely told her a million girls would kill for her job,” Fremar said. “That was definitely my line because I actually really believed that and I knew that she didn’t necessarily want to be there.”
Fremar recalled thinking that Weisberger, a recent Cornell University graduate, was smart and could likely pick up on the job quickly, even though she said Weisberger truly desired to be a writer. Loving fashion is what drove Fremar through a difficult work environment, but it was not a motivating force for Weisberger, she said.
“And I think this idea that the Emily character is not very pleasant or nice or seems high-strung is because I probably was not very nice and I probably was high-strung,” Fremar said. “Because I felt I was having to do her job as well. So, for me, that was really frustrating.”
That difference in the two women’s levels of investment in their jobs likely lead to tensions in the office, according to Fremar.
“She just didn’t want to play the game,” Fremar told the podcast.
Fremar said she had not seen Weisberger in the last 20 years, but that she has seen Blunt through her work. She said she told the actor that she was the real-life Emily that Blunt played on screen.
“She was not that interested, to be honest,” Fremar said. “I thought I was gonna get this, like, huge reaction. No. It was like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
But in spite of it all, Fremar said, she is still able to separate herself from the character that she says was based on her. She even found the movie entertaining.
“To me it was real, but in the movie it felt more of a fantasy of what this perception of the fashion industry is,” Fremar said. “So that allowed me to enjoy it.”
