A million girls would kill for this job.
Los Angeles-based flight attendant and former model Tanya Hutchison thought she was auditioning for a flight safety video — but ended up in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” instead.
Hutchinson had always wanted to star in an airplane safety video and was thrilled to audition when she heard United Airlines was casting for one.
“I submitted a tape, and then when I got the callback on my birthday from United, they were like, ‘Congratulations!’” she told People. “I’m thinking I got the part in the safety video. I was thrilled. And they said, ‘You’re going to be in a movie.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, what?!’”
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
When she got the call, she wanted to tell everyone, but due to an NDA, she couldn’t disclose anything.
“That was kind of hard, because you want to automatically start calling and telling everybody,” she shared.
In a brief airplane scene in the highly anticipated sequel to the beloved 2006 film, Hutchinson can be seen alongside Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci.
“We see them on the screen. We don’t get that they have a 5 a.m. call, and we may not get to that scene until like noon or one,” she shared.
“You just see that they’re regular people like you are, and very nice and want you to feel comfortable. But they’re so iconic that there’s this nervousness where your heart’s just pounding.”
Her character is a flight attendant who has to tell Streep’s Miranda Priestly that there’s no champagne in economy — and Hutchinson noted that people make demands like that in real life “all the time.”
“I want to go, ‘This is an airplane, not a restaurant,’ ” she told the outlet.
Hutchinson — who also appeared in the debut season of the 2008 reality show competition “She’s Got The Look” — said that the NDA and not being allowed to take photos while filming really helped give her the chance to live in the moment and be present.
“As a mom with young kids, I was always capturing the moment. A lot of pictures I was never in, because you’re always kind of documenting what happened,” she said.
“Not being able to take a photo gave me the opportunity to live that moment, and it’s something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I ended up on the big screen with credits!”
Hutchinson is a longtime flight attendant who gave up her job with another airline decades ago to get married and raise her children. Ten years ago, when her five adult children were grown, she returned to the job as a United flight attendant.
“I put all my kids through college, and then I thought, ‘What do I do with this life?’ And there was an opportunity. And to be honest with you, I thought I might be too old,” she admitted. “But because United is so diverse, and they really look beyond the surface of things and go to the heart of the matter, I think that’s why I’m here. They felt my authenticity.”
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