Adrian Grenier Thinks He Knows Why He's Not In Devil Wears Prada 2
"It was a disappointment that I didn’t get the call."
A ton of familiar faces will be back for The Devil Wears Prada 2, but not the character that fans have dubbed the real devil in the hit 2006 dramedy. Adrian Grenier confirmed he is not reprising his role as the cheese-loving chef Nate in the new sequel. While he admitted to feeling “disappointment” around not being able to rejoin the Runway world, he also understands that the overwhelming hate for his character may have been behind the decision.
Grenier opened up to Page Six on March 13 about his difficult feelings over being left out of the upcoming sequel. “We’re all fans of the movie, whether or not we’re in it. Obviously, it was a disappointment that I didn’t get the call to be in the sequel, but I also understand there’s some backlash with Nate, the character, so that might have something to do with it,” Grenier said. “But I think that just leaves room for a spinoff.”
As anyone who’s been online in the last two decades can tell you, The Devil Wears Prada fandom is incredibly vocal about one hot take that’s actually not that hot anymore: the real villain wasn’t Miranda, but Nate.
Especially in recent years, the popular reading of the movie is that Andy’s demanding and impossible-to-please boss Miranda actually pushed the young writer to reach her professional ambitions, even if she initially had no interest in the fashion world. On the other hand, Andy’s boyfriend Nate was constantly dismissive of her career, lulling her into complacency with expensive grilled cheeses and passive aggressive remarks.
Although Anne Hathaway has come to Nate’s defense in past interviews, Grenier has said that while the negative responses to his character surprised him, he ended up agreeing with the movie fans.
“I didn't see some of the subtleties and the nuance of this character and what it represented in the film until the wisdom of the masses came online and started to push against the character and throw him under the bus, and I got flak,” Grenier told Entertainment Weekly in 2021.
“All those memes that came out were shocking to me. 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, it was all about him, he wasn't extending himself to support Andy in her career,” the actor continued. “I might've been as immature as him at the time, so I personally couldn't see his shortcomings. But after time to reflect and much deliberation, I've come to realize the truth in that perspective.”
