‘Attractive, stylish, devoted to the boss': Are fictional EAs doing more harm than good?
While Sachs may no longer be Priestly's 'fetching' assistant in the highly anticipated sequel, which premieres in May 2026, she will arguably always be remembered as the person without whom her boss could not function – the unsung hero of Runway magazine.
Sachs is in good company. Many other executive assistants have crossed our screens, characters who toggle between being a professional right hand and a personal life coach every day of the week.
Decades before Sachs, there was Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H, the company clerk who was one step ahead of his commanding officer's needs – and the arrival of casualty-filled helicopters. On the big screen, Miss Moneypenny is perhaps one of the most famous office admins in film history. Secretary to James Bond's superior, M, at MI6, she appeared across several Bond films, though she was normally seen flirting rather than filing.
More recently, Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway from Mad Men constantly had to navigate the murky waters of a male-dominated 1960s advertising company in the period office drama, while Simone in Netflix's Sirens often behaved more like a daughter to her boss than an assistant.
Some of these characters are put through the wringer more than others, but they all share an overarching similarity: they're not ever quite given their due. It turns out that's not just the case on screen.
'We still battle the 'you're just an assistant' line,' says Candice Burningham, a Sydney-based executive assistant who has been in the business for more than 20 years. 'But we're not 'just' anything. We're business partners, we have major influence on business decisions, we have insight in business and we create real impact.'
Many people are also unaware there are distinct types of workplace assistants, she says. A personal assistant is more likely to do things like make dinner reservations or organise gifts on behalf of their boss, while an executive assistant may operate as more of a business partner. There are instances in which these roles sometimes overlap, Burningham says, but film and TV tend to depict them as entirely blended.
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