Everyone in the Devil Wears Prada 2 Is Desperate for This One Thing
In The Devil Wears Prada 2, it becomes apparent that all the characters, no matter how stylish, senior, and successful they are, all need one thing.
When we return to the characters we first met in The Devil Wears Prada, things have definitely altered. They’re 20 years older, wiser, and (especially in Andy’s case) a lot more confident.
However, as The Devil Wears Prada 2 progresses and we dig under the surface of the main cast, one thing becomes apparent: this confidence, in pretty much all cases, was a mirage. And the one thing that all the main characters (yes, even Miranda) had in common was this: they were absolutely salivating for even a droplet of sweet, sweet validation.
Validation is what makes all of these characters in the sequel fundamentally human, demonstrating how, underneath all that armour, their basic needs don’t just stay the same, but are, in fact, exacerbated by this cutthroat environment.
While the feeling they all desire is the same, it comes across in each character differently, so allow us to break it down – and please be advised that there are spoilers ahead. (Spoilers? In a movie feature? Groundbreaking).
How Andy Seeks Validation
Let’s start with Andy (Anne Hathaway). In The Devil Wears Prada, validation is basically her oxygen. It’s a strange one because, on the one hand, she clearly thinks that Runway and her job are ‘beneath’ her, but at the same time, she desperately wants to be validated by Miranda (Meryl Streep).
Simultaneously, Andy also wants to be validated as a ‘serious’ journalist. By the sequel, she achieves that goal. She won an award for the work she did at a reputable organisation. Sadly, this excitement didn’t last as she was laid off. She then ends up back at Runway. That’s where her two patterns of validation-seeking begin to merge.
By spearheading the magazine’s features section, Andy appears desperate to prove to Miranda and the rest of Runway that she isn’t the same person she was twenty years ago, and that she is now the ‘serious journalist’ she aspired to be. This causes her to make drastic decisions, like claiming to have organised a high-profile interview when she hadn’t. Throughout the film, she almost regresses in a way and goes back to the validation-seeking pattern that defined her behaviour in the first movie. But she’s not the only one.
Emily Is Also After Validation
Emily’s (Emily Blunt) quest for validation is more straightforward than Andy’s because, in the first film, she was the exact kind of girl who would “kill for” that job — and that’s something she’s acutely aware of. She, too, wants praise and appreciation from Miranda, but knows better than to show it. In the first film, Paris was important to Emily because it was the ultimate signal of validation that she was worthy of this job. By the second film, she’s working at Dior, which is a major advertiser for Runway. When the magazine goes into crisis, Emily seems to delight in throwing her weight around and driving a hard bargain. Like Andy, it’s clear she wants validation that she became successful despite Runway.
However, her true hunger for validation becomes clear when she tries to get her boyfriend to buy Runway so that she can run it. She says herself that she resented Miranda for “pushing her out,” and her whole arc seems to be about proving to her ex-coworkers and herself that she is worthy of Runway — and nothing is more validating than actually running the magazine and getting all the attention that comes with it.
Yes, Even Miranda and Nigel Seek Validation
And then there’s Nigel. Out of all the characters, he has changed the least. He is stoic, unflappable, and, arguably, the most consistent person in the entire film. He doesn’t show any external desire for validation, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it.
This is something that Andy picks up on. By not showing any external signs of needing validation, he gets none at all, literally, and is, arguably, taken for granted by Miranda. His relationship with validation is perhaps the healthiest for this reason. Still, his arc in the film is, in my opinion, centred around the idea that everyone still needs a little bit of validation, even if they don’t always show it.
As the person everyone else is seeking validation from, Miranda is known for being cutthroat. However, even she can’t escape this desire for validation. This is especially apparent in the second film. Runway is in an insecure place due to its PR disaster, along with the fact that the magazine climate is changing. Because Miranda is inextricable from Runway, it is almost like she herself has become insecure. In the same way everyone seems to desire validation from her, she seems to seek validation from both her boss and advertisers that she is still the powerhouse that she was in the first film.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who you are. We all need validation. It’s the thing that makes us human. And in high-pressure environments like media, this need for validation is, arguably, all the more apparent.
