Two decades after The Devil Wears Prada hit theaters, Leslie Fremar—the real-life inspiration for Emily Blunt's character Emily Charlton—is finally breaking her silence.
In an April 28 episode of Vogue's podcast The Run-Through, Fremar confirmed that she is indeed the person behind the iconic assistant. "I am Emily," she said.
Fremar worked as Anna Wintour's assistant at Vogue in the early 2000s and hired author Lauren Weisberger as a junior assistant. According to Fremar, Wintour herself alerted her to the book, saying, "Who's Lauren Weisberger? ... She wrote a book about us, and you're worse than me."
The first draft, Fremar recalls, was "quite mean" and "felt quite dark," but the published version was "much lighter." Still, she found it hurtful: "It felt like a betrayal at the time."
One of Emily's most famous lines—"A million girls would kill for the job"—was actually Fremar's. "I definitely told her that," she admitted. She also acknowledged being "not very pleasant or nice" at work, partly from frustration: "I was having to do her job as well."
Fremar and Weisberger never spoke after Weisberger left Vogue, and a potential reunion would likely be "very awkward." Even meeting Emily Blunt was anticlimactic: "She was not that interested."
For more behind-the-scenes scoop, the film adaptation was greenlit before the book's release, with Fox executives snapping up the rights based on just 100 pages. Director David Frankel faced difficulties securing locations—the Met and Bryant Park were off-limits due to Wintour's influence—and costume designer Patricia Field assembled a 150-piece wardrobe after designers initially refused to participate, fearing Wintour's wrath.
Despite the tension, Fremar has moved on to a successful styling career, working with clients like Charlize Theron.