Anne Hathaway Explains Why She Doesn't Think Nate Is The Real Villain In 'The Devil Wears Prada'

Andy Sachs was an aspiring journalist who took a job with the renowned fashion editor Miranda Priestley. She was never planning on staying at the job for long, just long enough to get a leg up in the industry and eventually be able to write about the topics that interest her the most. Although Miranda is portrayed as the villain in The Devil Wears Prada, which is based on a novel of the same name, there's been chatter over the years that Andy's boyfriend Nate was actually the villain, since he was the one who held her back from achieving her goals. Anne Hathaway isn't on board with this take, though.

Anne Hathaway Explains Why She Doesn't Think Nate Is the Real Villain in The Devil Wears Prada

One of the most pivotal scenes of the movie is when Nate tells Andy that he wouldn't care if she were out stripping every night as long as she did it with some dignity. He walks away from her as she takes a call from her boss Miranda, as he reminds her that the person whose calls she always takes is the one she's in a relationship with. The Devil Wears Prada fans couldn't help but be annoyed at Nate because he just couldn't really be happy for Andy when she got a makeover and started actually enjoying her job.

But in a "Watch What Happens Live" interview with Andy Cohen, Anne Hathaway refused to make Nate out to be the bad guy. When two fans called in and asked if she thought he was the villain, she responded, "No, I'm sorry. I don't." She explained why.

"I think that they were both very young and figuring things out, and he did behave like a brat. But I also behaved like a brat in my 20s. I hopefully grew out of it, and I think that's what we all do. I wouldn't want to be defined by my worst moment in my 20s, certainly. So I don't hold Nate as a villain, actually."

Nate certainly was moody and needy, but Anne brings up a good point: None of us were at our best in our 20s, especially when it comes to relationships. Perhaps Nate deserves the benefit of the doubt, and Andy was right to cut him some slack. There's also another layer to the dynamic in which you can't deny that Andy was acting self-centered and was all too quick to blow off something as important as Nate's birthday in order to get a leg up at work. Not to mention all the flirting she was doing with another man while she was still in a committed relationship with Nate, whom she lived with.

The Devil Wears Prada may have been released in 2006, but fans won't let go of the story anytime soon, and there will probably be many more debates about whether Nate or Miranda was the real villain.