All hail Emily Charlton (the greatest character in The Devil Wears Prada)

Yes Meryl Streep earned million nominations, gazillion awards and praise for portraying the cold and un-emotional fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly. Yes, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Simon Baker are also gerat in the movie. Yes the fashion in The Devil Wears Prada was impeccable.
But I want to talk about one thing in particular. Or to be precise, about one person. Emily Charlton. So, understandably you can imagine my delight when I found out the upcoming book sequel to The Devil Wears Prada book. Lauren Weisberger, the author of The Devil Wears Prada announced that the sequel will be titled When Life Gives You Lululemons and will focus on Emily’s life as a high-powered image consultant. To which all I can say is hallelujah. So let’s talk about Emilly. The female version of the character.
Played by the British actress Emily Blunt, Charlton was easily the best character in the movie (OK maybe tied with Stanley Tucci’s Nigel character). She was actually the one I loooved the most from the entire movie. Miranda was heartless and dominating, Andy was panicky nervous wreck, but Emily was awesome.
Unlike Andy she knew she wanted to work in fashion, and specifically for Miranda Priestly for so long and sacrificed a lot to be where she is. Yes her job was high stressed and demanding, yes she didn’t have much of a private life, but she rarely complained about anything. She was professional, hardworking, resilient and tough. Just like any aspiring professional would like to be. Yes she was judgmental and superficial but she was the product of the industry she was in and the environment she was surrounded by. When you have a job to pair this belt with those shoes, you don’t have to ask the big philosophical questions… am I right?
That brings me to the way she thinks about her appearance. I found it very cliché that the screen writer made her into a starving bitch on the verge of anorexia.
Emily: Andrea, my God! You look so chic.
Andy Sachs: Oh, thanks. You look so thin.
Emily: Really? It’s for Paris, I’m on this new diet. Well, I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m about to faint I eat a cube of cheese. I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
I mean… she is in the fashion industry but that’s just blatant way of perpetuating the clichés about every female in this industry. And she is not even a model.
Yes she is not friendly or polite but she doesn’t needs to be. She’s in very competitive and tough industry where (she state it in the beginning in the movie), million girls would kill for her job. So she rolls with the punches and tries to succeed with the best she got.
And don’t get me started on her terrible luck near the end of the movie. The accident she was involved in caused her to miss the Paris fashion show, and frankly when I saw the movie, I was even more pissed than she was. I mean… she hoped and worked so hard, and some rookie who eats carbs for Christ sake got to go instead.
Emily Blunt was absolutely terrific in the role of Emily Charlton and her Golden Globe nomination was much deserved. I hoped she win, but I’m just glad Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognized her talent and awarded her with a nomination.