【2001 Archives】

Remember 001 ArchivesDevil Wears Prada? That movie about scrappy Anne Hathaway working for tough-but-admirable Meryl Streep? Hathaway learns how to kick ass and take names while wearing 8-inch heels and outgrowing an extremely whiney boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Grenier).

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, the current showrunner of the CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, dished about writing Nate as the natural antagonist to Andy's ambition -- a role often given to the "girlfriend" character.

“That’s a part that a lot of women end up playing, the ‘why aren’t you home more,’ the naggy wife," McKenna said. "I have to say, that character was the biggest challenge to write."

"The part that makes me giggly when I read is him being upset about his birthday," McKenna said later. "It’s pretty whiney — but he does say later that it wasn’t what he was upset about.”

The negativity toward Nate emerged largely over the past several years, as fans who saw the movie in 2006 as teens or young adults grew up and examined Andy and Nate's relationship more critically. In the movie, they're supposed to be fresh out of college, putting them around 22 years old. Man, men are the worst sometimes -- especially in their early 20s! At least Grenier made it...believable?

 “I think Adrian just nails that, and it is a bit of a thankless role," McKenna said.

Too true. And luckily, it doesn't diminish Andy's journey in the film.

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