Like “Miranda Priestly,” I Love to Work. Don’t You?
Former corporate executive Sally Susman on identifying with Meryl Streep’s character’s ongoing passion for her career in "The Devil Wears Prada 2."
Hoping for some light entertainment, I went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 on a recent Sunday afternoon. In addition to killer haute couture looks and the requisite catty quips of the fashion world, I walked away with something entirely unexpected: moving insights on the changing work world and the intersection of ambition and aging—both topics close to my heart.
(Warning: spoilers ahead.) Twenty years since the original film, life caught up with the main characters: Runway magazine’s legendary editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, played flawlessly by Meryl Streep; and a commanding Anne Hathaway, reprising her role as journalist Andy Sachs. Both women have matured and rendered themselves more reflective, wiser and more relatable than in the popular original version.
From the opening scenes, we find Priestly under pressure. Her once unrivaled style magazine fights to stay relevant. Long-form narrative print articles are out of fashion (pun intended), replaced by digestible digital soundbites. Budget cuts are imposed, as many advertisers now spend their dollars elsewhere, and the once hefty September issue is described by Priestly as “so thin you could floss with it.” I felt her pain as so many beloved traditions of the workplace have been upended by AI and a world viewed through our phones. Rather than building her business, Priestly must cut costs, fire people and answer to consultants with no love for her craft. Her painful tasks are all too common in offices across the country.
Sachs arrives back at Runway an accomplished journalist, no longer a nervous executive assistant. It’s heartening to see her pursuing truth and writing features at the magazine rather than delivering coffee and running errands. Her maturity allows her to view Priestly with empathy, manage a media crisis and convince her boss to share the spotlight with her long suffering second in command, Runway’s art director Nigel Kipling, played by Stanley Tucci. Sachs declines a lucrative book deal for a tell-all biography about Priestly out of loyalty. She is a hero for our times.
With an impish grin, Priestly says, “But boy, I love to work, don’t you?” My heart lurched. I was one with her, her stubborn ambition, and desire to continue to have impact. I wanted to stand up in the darkened theater and shout “Yes, I do!”
The breathtaking moment comes near the end, when Priestly and Sachs are sitting in the back of a chauffeured sedan rejoicing over clinching a deal to keep Runway from the clutches of a hapless tech titan. They are uncharacteristically happy, relaxed and enjoying one another’s company. Priestly gives Sachs her blessing to go ahead and write the biography, saying: “You should write it, and you should keep all the juicy bits. How impatient I am and demanding and imperious. And, you know…how much of my children’s lives I’ve missed. Just put it all in there. Because people should know. They should know the cost.” Priestly is no longer dedicated to a false image of perfection and willing to reveal the struggle. Once rigid and aloof, she is bending with grace and revealing painful truths.
Then, with an impish grin, Priestly adds, “But boy, I love to work, don’t you?” My heart lurched. I was one with her, her stubborn ambition, and desire to continue to have impact. I wanted to stand up in the darkened theater and shout “Yes, I do!”
This line hit a nerve with me, as, at 64 I’ve shifted away from my full-time gig. It was time, but not easy to leave my career as an Executive Vice President at a pharmaceutical company, one that gave me tremendous opportunity, access and joy. Now, after a lot of soul searching, I’ve cobbled together a post-employment portfolio of companies I advise, candidates and causes I support, and writing projects on subjects of interest. It’s working for me. I still get to do meaningful work, meet interesting people, learn and contribute.
“Well, something’s lost, but something’s gained in living every day,” Joni Mitchell sings in “Clouds.” Yes, I’ve lost the comforts of the C-suite, and the thrill of being able to punch above my weight with a multinational corporation by my side. Yet I’ve found liberation in being my own boss and speaking with my own voice on the topics of my choosing. Like Priestly, I am evolving with confidence and a new, albeit older, sense of self.
Do you love to work? Are you of retirement age, but resistant to move on from your career? Have you switched careers later in life?
Follow Sally Susman on LinkedIn.
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Sorely wish I could relate, but nope. My work is exhausting, boring and overstimulating at the same time, and underpaid. I think like most of us, I'd prefer to already be retired so I could do what I actually enjoy...but without starving.
I am 70 andI love to work because I have a great job. I am a Paris tour guide giving private tours of the city and almost everyday I get to walk the streets of this beautiful city and share it with my clients. I also write a substack blog about fun things to do in Paris, and I have to go to restaurants, bakeries, cool stores, galleries, and museum exhibitions so I can write about them.