ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM (5)
By:
July 20, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite sympathetic villains. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
MIRANDA PRIESTLY
We shouldn’t think of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada as just that ruthless, abusive boss everyone loves to hate. There’s something bigger happening. Miranda is a totem, a living symbol of transformation, of becoming in its purest conceptual form.
The movie leaves something out: her greatness wasn’t inherited. In the novel, we learn she begins her life as Miriam Princhek, one of eleven children in a poor Jewish family from London’s East End. Through survival instinct, ambition, and endless self-reinvention, she claws her way upward, becoming someone not just admired, but worshiped. Her story isn’t about privilege; it’s about raw, relentless metamorphosis. A becoming carved by necessity and sharpened by will.
In the many movements of transformation, even her name evolves. Author Lauren Weisberger likely wasn’t casual when she chose to rename her “Miranda,” from the Latin mirandus, meaning “worthy of wonder,” while “Priestly” evokes sacred reverence. Miranda didn’t just change her appearance; she reconstructed her entire essence, building a persona that demands awe the moment she steps into a room. And the world falls silent.
Then we welcome Andrea Sachs to the story: the other side of becoming. Andrea, a genderless name meaning “brave” could belong to any of us, symbolizing the universal seeker navigating life’s unpredictable Campbellian journey. Sachs, a nod to common Saxon heritage, grounds her as an everyday figure. She’s the naive girl, stumbling through New York and Paris, crossing street after street, always at some literal and metaphorical crossroads, often a little lost.
Every encounter with Miranda pulls Andrea deeper into the gravitational field of change. Along the way, she even learns to distinguish cerulean blue from turquoise and lapis lazúli. Small tonal signs of how deeply the transformation runs. Becoming for her is both the adjective of outer polish and the noun of inner evolution.
To truly feel it, just fast-forward to the final ten minutes. Paris blurs into black and white outside, but inside the car, Miranda and Andrea sit vivid in color, mirroring each other. Miranda remarks how much they have been shaped by the same invisible forces, then says it plainly: “Everyone wants to be like us.” Andrea steps out, furious, tossing her phone into a fountain, trying to reclaim her story and deny the reflection. But the truth is irreversible: Miranda’s imprint remains. Andrea is no longer who she was. As Heraclitus reminds us, no one steps into the same river twice.
Beyond cruelty, Miranda embodies the mirror we all one day face. The endless, inevitable dance of becoming that spins us forward, changing us with every single step.
ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Kathy Biehl on DR. FRANK-N-FURTER | Catherine Christman on ALEXIS CARRINGTON | Crockett Doob on M3GAN | Nick Rumaczyk on AURIC GOLDFINGER | Mariane Cara on MIRANDA PRIESTLY | Trav SD on PROFESSOR HINKLE | Alex Brook Lynn on TOM POWERS | Lynn Peril on ENDORA | Adam McGovern on EDDIE HASKELL | Mimi Lipson on SUE ANN NIVENS | Heather Quinlan on HAROLD SHAND | Tom Nealon on SKELETOR | Matthew Hodge on BARRY LYNDON | Josh Glenn on JOEL CAIRO | Dan Reines on WALTER PECK | Mark Kingwell on HARRY LIME | James Scott Maloy on CLARENCE BODDICKER | Nikhil Singh on LOCUTUS | Carolyn Campbell on CARSON DYLE | Tony Pacitti on DENNIS NEDRY | Gordon Dahlquist on WALKER | Colin Campbell on RUTH LYTTON | Marc Weidenbaum on THE XENOMORPHS | Alycia Chillemi on TBD | Mandy Keifetz on MACHEATH.
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