But she has been told that the editor-in-chief was âmildly pleasedâ with the film adaptation. âIâm just so grateful to her for giving me the job in the first place,â Weisberger says. âI would never have been able to write the book without it. I had a front-row seat to the world the book takes place in, and that perspective was invaluable.â
She has been careful to keep private the details of the friendship that inspired the book. âI know people are curious, but itâs not my story to tell.â The real-life inspiration for Priestly is ânot at allâ Wintour, she says. âMiranda is a much more interesting character than Anna. Miranda is a sociopath. She is cold and ruthless. Anna is a very different person.â
Weisberger hopes the musical will bring the story to a new audience. âA lot of people connect with it as a story of a terrifying boss,â she says, âbut I always saw it as a story about a young woman finding her voice and her strength.â
She has three children, and that has changed her perspective. âWhen you have kids, the world gets a lot bigger and more complicated. Iâm more confident now. Iâve had more life experiences, and Iâm not as easily intimidated.â
She has no plans to write a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, but she is working on a new novel. âI love writing,â she says. âItâs what Iâve always wanted to do.â
“I don’t think I’m even a blip on her radar,” she shrugs. “But who knows. She’s an enigma.” Wintour did see the film on its release in 2006: she famously wore Prada to the screening, suggesting that the devil does at least have a sense of humour. But she has never commented on it, nor on the book that turned her into a household name.
It was a different time. It was like: ‘Shut your mouth, pay your dues, suck it up’
It seems to me Weisberger has done more than anyone – besides Wintour herself – to build the legend that exists around a Vogue editor who has become an icon of female power. But Weisberger demurs. “Oh no, not just me. Two words – Meryl Streep. She did an unbelievable job. When the film was being made, I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun. It’s cool to watch a movie get made and maybe some people will go see it.’ But Meryl elevated the Miranda Priestly character to another level with her genius. Miranda is pretty one-dimensional in the book: tough, cold, incredibly competent, at the top of her game. But Meryl Streep doesn’t do one dimensional. She brought Miranda to life.”
The Devil Wears Prada is not just about Wintour, though, or Vogue, or fashion, or New York. “A lot of people connect with it as a story of a terrifying boss,” says Weisberger. “We’ve all had an experience like that.”
And it tapped into generational conflict in the workplace, at a time when the boomer generation still ruled with a rod of iron. Rereading it now, the mood of rebellion against unreasonable demands – yelled from corner offices – feels like a prescient foretelling of the way generation Z are now demanding a reset of office culture and the work-life balance.
‘She brought Miranda to life’ … Meryl Streep as Miranda with Anne Hathaway as assistant Andy in the film. Photograph: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy
“It was a different time,” says Weisberger. “It was like, ‘Shut your mouth, pay your dues, suck it up.’ The book is also pin sharp on society’s myopic view of beauty. Andy is body-shamed in the Vogue canteen for the crime of ordering a soup with cream in it, while a co-worker who wakes up feeling unable to meet the Vogue office’s unwritten dress code of stick-thin glamour considers ‘calling in fat’. Says Weisberger: “It felt very normal then. It was accentuated at Vogue, certainly, but it was much broader than that. It was in the culture, in the way I was raised. Thin was all that mattered. We’ve made progress there, I think. I hope. There is definitely still a premium placed on being thin, but at least we are learning to check ourselves.”
As a West End musical, The Devil Wears Prada – first a scandalous book, then a darkly comic movie – gets a feelgood third act. Vanessa Williams, playing Priestly, rises on to the stage through a trapdoor in sunglasses to rapturous applause: Nuclear Wintour, but with a sugary sprinkle of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé in stadium mode. Assistants sashay about arm in arm, hair-tossing like supermodels on a Versace catwalk. Andy gets a Chanel makeover. After an aborted first run in Chicago two years ago (“It just wasn’t ready to go to Broadway and I didn’t know what would happen, didn’t know if the project was going to die at that point”) the show has had, in modern fashion parlance, a glow-up. More jokes, more energy, more of the subversive irreverence that made the book a hit – and much better clothes. “It’s fun, isn’t it?” says Weisberger. “And joyful. We need joyful right now.”
Back when she was being yelled at for not getting Wintour’s coffee order fast enough, or for sending the wrong flowers to Donatella, Weisberger would call home and her mum would tell her to hand in her notice. “But my father would say, ‘This is an incredible opportunity, a bird’s eye view no one your age gets.’ I wish now that I’d had the emotional fortitude to have more perspective, because I could have learned a lot more. Because, aside from all the noise about Anna, she is remarkable, the very best at what she does. And I didn’t fully appreciate that then. But if I had done, I don’t know that I would have been able to poke fun at it. And then none of this would have happened.”
The Devil Wears Prada is at the Dominion theatre, London, from 1 December until 31 May
Translation to Spanish:
“Creo que ni siquiera soy importante para ella”, se encoge de hombros. “Pero quién sabe. Ella es una enigma”. Wintour vio la película en su estreno en 2006: famosamente llevaba Prada a la proyección, lo que sugiere que el diablo al menos tiene sentido del humor. Pero nunca ha comentado al respecto, ni sobre el libro que la convirtió en un nombre conocido en todo el mundo.
Era una época diferente. Era como: “Cierra la boca, paga tus deudas, aguántate”
Me parece que Weisberger ha hecho más que nadie, además de Wintour misma, para construir la leyenda que rodea a una editora de Vogue que se ha convertido en un ícono del poder femenino. Pero Weisberger se niega. “Oh no, no solo yo. Dos palabras: Meryl Streep. Hizo un trabajo increíble. Cuando se estaba haciendo la película, pensaba: ‘Oh, esto es divertido. Es genial ver cómo se hace una película y tal vez algunas personas vayan a verla’. Pero Meryl elevó el personaje de Miranda Priestly a otro nivel con su genialidad. Miranda es bastante unidimensional en el libro: dura, fría, increíblemente competente, en la cima de su juego. Pero Meryl Streep no hace unidimensional. Ella le dio vida a Miranda”.
El Diablo Viste de Prada no se trata solo de Wintour, o de Vogue, o de la moda, o de Nueva York. “Mucha gente se identifica con él como una historia sobre un jefe aterrador”, dice Weisberger. “Todos hemos tenido una experiencia así”.
Y abordó el conflicto generacional en el lugar de trabajo, en un momento en que la generación baby boomer aún gobernaba con mano de hierro. Releyéndolo ahora, el estado de rebelión contra demandas irrazonables, gritadas desde las oficinas, parece una premonición perspicaz de la forma en que la generación Z ahora está exigiendo un reinicio de la cultura de oficina y el equilibrio entre trabajo y vida.
“Era una época diferente”, dice Weisberger. “Era como, ‘Cierra la boca, paga tus deudas, aguántate’. El libro también es muy agudo en la visión miope de la belleza de la sociedad. Andy es criticada por su cuerpo en la cafetería de Vogue por el crimen de pedir una sopa con crema, mientras que una compañera de trabajo que se despierta sintiéndose incapaz de cumplir con el código de vestimenta no escrito de glamour delgada de la oficina de Vogue considera “llamarse gorda”. Dice Weisberger: “En ese entonces se sentía muy normal. Se acentuaba en Vogue, ciertamente, pero era mucho más amplio que eso. Estaba en la cultura, en la forma en que fui criada. Lo delgado era todo lo que importaba. Hemos progresado allí, creo. Espero. Definitivamente todavía se valora mucho estar delgado, pero al menos estamos aprendiendo a controlarnos”.
Como musical del West End, El Diablo Viste de Prada, primero un libro escandaloso, luego una película oscuramente cómica, obtiene un tercer acto optimista. Vanessa Williams, interpretando a Priestly, se eleva al escenario a través de una trampilla con gafas de sol para recibir un aplauso entusiasta: Nuclear Wintour, pero con un toque azucarado de Taylor Swift o Beyoncé en modo estadio. Los asistentes pasean de brazo en brazo, sacudiendo el cabello como supermodelos en una pasarela de Versace. Andy recibe un cambio de imagen de Chanel. Después de una primera ejecución abortada en Chicago hace dos años (“Simplemente no estaba lista para ir a Broadway y no sabía qué iba a pasar, no sabía si el proyecto iba a morir en ese momento”), el espectáculo ha tenido, en el lenguaje de la moda moderna, una mejora. Más bromas, más energía, más de la irreverencia subversiva que hizo que el libro fuera un éxito, y mucha mejor ropa. “Es divertido, ¿verdad?”, dice Weisberger. “Y alegre. Necesitamos alegría en este momento”.
Cuando la regañaban por no entregar el pedido de café de Wintour lo suficientemente rápido, o por enviar las flores incorrectas a Donatella, Weisberger llamaba a casa y su madre le decía que renunciara. “Pero mi padre decía: ‘Esta es una oportunidad increíble, una vista panorámica que nadie de tu edad obtiene’. Ojalá ahora hubiera tenido la fortaleza emocional para tener más perspectiva, porque podría haber aprendido mucho más. Porque, aparte de todo el ruido sobre Anna, ella es notable, la mejor en lo que hace. Y no apreciaba eso completamente en ese momento. Pero si lo hubiera hecho, no sé si hubiera podido burlarme de eso. Y entonces nada de esto hubiera sucedido”.