For the first time since Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel The Devil Wears Prada was published more than 20 years ago, the real-life inspiration behind Miranda Priestley’s hostile senior assistant Emily Charlton has spoken out. Ahead of the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2, celebrity stylist Leslie Flemer came forward on the latest episode of Vogue’s podcast The Run-Through and declared herself the real Emily. Emily Blunt plays this character in the film series.
“I know I am. I’m Emily,” Flemer told Vogue boss Chloe Malle, who replaced Anna Wintour as editor-in-chief of the iconic fashion magazine. The character of Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep in an Oscar-nominated performance, is based on Winter. Weisberger (the real Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway) served as her junior assistant and used his experience at Vogue as the basis for 2003’s The Devil Wears Prada. Flemer hired Weisberger and they worked together for eight months, much like Emily and Andy in the movie.
“I definitely told[Lauren]that a million girls would kill for the job,” Flemer said, quoting one of the movie’s most iconic lines (via People). “That was definitely my line. I actually believed that and I knew she didn’t necessarily want to be there.”
Flemer recalled receiving a call from Wintour’s office when the Vogue icon caught wind that Weisberger was writing a book.
“I was stunned.[Winter]said, ‘Who is Lauren Weisberger?'” And I said, “She was your junior assistant.” And she was like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us and you’re worse than me,'” Flemer recalled. “I wanted to ask her more questions, but I can’t ask her that many questions.”
“It just felt like this revelation,” Flemer added of the book. “Even though someone obviously advised her to fictionalize it, it was actually based on a lot of things that I had lived, that she had lived…I probably wasn’t a very nice person, and I was nervous because I felt like I had to do her job too. So that was really frustrating for me. I think she was probably just sitting there writing the book and not necessarily taking the job as seriously as I did.”
Flemer said she “felt betrayed” when the book was released, and said, “After she left, we never spoke again,” referring to Weisberger. But Flemer got a chance to speak with Blunt, who played Emily in the first “The Devil Wears Prada” movie. It was Blunt’s breakout role in Hollywood.
“I said to her, ‘Just to let you know, I’m Emily,'” Flemer said. “To be honest, she wasn’t that interested. I thought I was going to get such a huge response. No, I wasn’t. I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’
You can listen to Fremar’s full interview on the podcast “The Run-Through” here. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” will be released nationwide on May 1st.
