The Real “Emily” Speaks! – Daily Front Row

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Former Anna Wintour first assistant Leslie Fremar is pretty much certain that she was the inspiration for the character of Emily in The Devil Wears Prada and she wasn’t exactly happy about it. In a recent interview with Vogue’s Chloé Malle, Fremar — who is now a big time Hollywood stylist with clients that include none other than red carpet goddess Charlize Theron — said she felt betrayed when the book came out. “We’ve never talked about it,” she told Malle, “we never spoke again after she left.”

You can listen to the full interview here, but we also pulled out a few choice tidbits below.

On her feelings about the first film:

“The movie did a great job at kind of fictionalizing it and making [the fashion industry and working at Vogue] a little more fun than maybe it actually is or was. But I quite enjoyed the movie as entertainment.”

On working for Anna:

Fremar worked as Wintour’s second assistant for about six months before the first assistant moved on and she was offered the promotion and at first she said no. “Jill [Anna’s first at the time] was really ready to move on and she kept convincing me I was ready, but I really did not feel ready,” says Fremar. “Anna called Jill into the office and was like ‘Jill, you need to convince her.’ So then I knew I couldn’t say no.”

“It felt to me like grad school, like this is like the best grad school, like I just got into Harvard grad school. To me that’s what it felt like and like Anna had like no boundaries to where we could listen in on her calls, her doors were open for meetings, like if you really were to pay attention [there was] so much to learn.”

On first hearing about the book:

“I was actually working for Tonne Goodman at the time… [and I was] in Tonne’s office, which we shared at the time, and I got a call from Anna’s assistant saying that she wanted to see me and my heart sunk. I was like, ‘She would never call an assistant into her office.’ So I was very taken aback by that. So I went into her office and she was like, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger?’ And I said, ‘She was your junior assistant. She was only here for a short time. Maybe 8 months.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us and you’re worse than me.’ And I was like… I wanted to ask her more questions, but you can’t really ask her any questions, so I was like, ‘Okay.’ And she was like, ‘Well, I received the galley.’ And she let me read it. It was actually quite mean, the galley, and I think obviously an editor came in and softened it… I think what got put into the world is a much lighter nicer version than what she actually wrote.”

Leslie Fremar (left) with Joanna Hillman at an event in 2015.

Now, Fremar might have been the inspiration for the character of Emily in the book, but when actor Emily Blunt was preparing for her role as the Miranda Priestly’s deliciously snarky first assistant in the film, she actually shadowed a market editor at More Magazine — a now-defunct fashion and and lifestyle publication targeting women over 40, which was published by the Meredith Corporation from 1998 to 2016.

I know this because in 2006, right after the movie came out, I freelanced at More for a couple of months and the market editor at the time — whose name I cannot remember to save my life — talked about it a lot. Like a lot a lot. Apparently Blunt followed her around for an entire week, asking questions and watching how she interacted with people. That particular editor’s energy was more “gossipy Long Island housewife” than “sharp-togued and ruthlessly ambitious ice queen,” so it’s hard for me to believe Blunt took much of anything from the experience when building her now iconic character. In fact, at first I suspected she was lying to me. But multiple people in the office assured me that Blunt had indeed spent a week in the office shadowing that editor, so I guess it really did happen, although, honestly, to this day, I really can’t picture it.