Adrian Grenier, the actor behind the true villain of The Devil Wears Prada, broke his silence on being left out of the film’s 2026 blockbuster sequel.
“Obviously, it was a disappointment that I didn’t get the call to be in the sequel,” Grenier, 49, said in an interview with Page Six on Friday. “We’re all fans of the movie, whether or not we’re in it.”
Grenier, who played Nate, the boyfriend of Anne Hathaway’s fashion assistant Andrea “Andy” Sachs, thinks the public rebuke of his character in the 2006 movie may be the cause.
“I also understand that there’s some backlash with Nate, so that might have something to do with it,” the Entourage star reflected. “Either way, it’s a disappointment.”
In the original film, while Andy is earning her stripes under the guidance of industry legend Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, Nate sulks about his girlfriend’s loss of free time. He even breaks up with her over her new “shallow” interests and fashion sensibilities.
Fans of the highly rewatchable film have grown to dislike Nate, who opts to whine rather than support his girlfriend’s surging career.
At the time of filming, Grenier said he didn’t realize Nate’s red flags.
"I didn’t see some of the subtleties and the nuance of this character and what it represented in the film until the wisdom of the masses came online and started to push against the character and throw him under the bus, and I got flak," Grenier said in a 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly.
In one notable scene, Nate confronts Andy for skipping his birthday to travel with Miranda to Paris Fashion Week.
“You used to say this was just a job, you used to make fun of the runway girls. What happened? Now you’ve become one of them,” Nate laments, before the couple breaks up.
Grenier added in the EW interview that his own immaturity kept him from seeing Nate’s shortcomings, “but after time to reflect and much deliberation, I’ve come to realize the truth in that perspective.”
Hathaway, 43, however, said fans should extend a little more grace to Nate.
“Nate was pouty on his birthday because his girlfriend wasn’t there! In hindsight, I’m sure he wishes he made a different choice, but who doesn’t? We’ve all been brats at different points. We all just need to live, let live, do better!” the Oscar winner said in the same 2021 interview.
Grenier still thinks there’s a chance Nate may return to the big screen after he parted ways with Andy at the end of the first film.
“Either way, it leaves room for a beautiful spinoff in which Nate has his own film,” he told Page Six.
Much of the film’s original cast will be in the upcoming 2026 sequel, including Hathaway, Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 will premiere on May 1.
