Anne Hathaway jokes Devil Wears Prada rivals are 'tattooed on her brain'

Anne Hathaway has joked that she has the names of the actresses who turned down her role in The Devil Wears Prada "tattooed on her brain".

Andy Sachs is one of Hathaway's most famous roles, however, she was not the first choice to play the Runway assistant in the 2006 film - in fact, she only got the part after eight other actresses passed on it.

When she shared the news in a joint interview with Emily Blunt for Capital FM, her co-star asked of her competitors, "Can you name them?" and Hathaway jokingly replied, "Of course I can, they're tattooed on my brain all these years later."

The Oscar-winning star explained that she couldn't understand why the other actresses were turning it down, and kept actively campaigning for the part as the casting team went through different options.

"It was kind of amazing, because I'm just like, 'Why is everyone turning down this amazing part in this amazing movie with Meryl (Streep)?' I couldn't figure it out," she said. "So now I like to, you know, kid myself and think that it was like some kind of destiny."

"Every time a girl would turn it down, I'd be like, 'OK, I'm still here.' (They'd say), 'We're going to go to someone else.' 'OK, but I'm still here,'" she recalled. "The reason I felt really strongly that I should keep putting myself forward, and I shouldn't take my eye off the prize, was because the project just had this really unbelievable, almost mystical, magnetism to it, and I could feel it. I just was like, 'It doesn't matter how you get on this project, just get on it.'"

Blunt told Hathaway that there was "no one else" who could play Andy, to which The Princess Diaries star responded, "You're so sweet."

In an oral history for Entertainment Weekly to mark the film's 15th anniversary in 2021, director David Frankel revealed that studio officials wanted an established dramatic actress over Hathaway and her then teen-focused filmography. They offered the role of Andy to Rachel McAdams three times, while Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Kate Hudson, and Kirsten Dunst were also considered.

Hathaway recently returned as Andy for a sequel, which is now in cinemas.