Anne Hathaway has defended her Devil Wears Prada on-screen boyfriend Nate from a long-running fan theory, which claimed he is the true villain of the film.
Hathaway plays aspiring journalist Andy in the 2006 romantic comedy, opposite co-stars Adrian Grenier as Nate and Meryl Streep as her terrifying boss, Miranda Priestly.
In the film, Andy and Nate break up after she struggles to balance Miranda’s work demands with her personal life.
While Streep’s performance as Miranda has been widely praised, her character has been reassessed in the years since the film was released.
Many have argued that it is in fact Nate who is the real villain of the film, for prioritising his own needs as opposed to supporting Andy in her career development.
Now, Hathaway herself has weighed in on the debate. Speaking on the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen show on Tuesday (25 October), she was asked if she agreed that he was the real villain.
“No, I’m sorry I don’t,” she said before explaining further. “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 twentie 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,” she added.
In 2021, Grenier admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he thought his character was “selfish” and “self involved”.
“It hadn’t occurred to me until I started to really think about it, and perhaps it was because I was as immature as Nate was at the time, and in many ways he’s very selfish and self-involved,” Grenier said.
“It was all about him, he wasn’t extending himself to support Andy in her career."
