I finally took a look at actress Natalie Portman’s new "behind the scenes" web portal MakingOf yesterday. And it turns out the showcase -- which intends to break down the walls of Hollywood heavyweights’ creative processes and inspire younger generations -- is currently hosting a gem of a video, at least in the minds of fashion folk. It’s the closest you’ll come to a behind-the-scenes look at the much-anticipated documentary, The September Issue, which follows Anna Wintour and her various minions as they put together Vogue's iconic September fashion issue. While R.J. Cutler’s film, which follows Wintour within Conde Nast’s walls and beyond, won’t be released until this September, MakingOf captures Cutler revealing quite a bit about the infamous editrix.

First off, Cutler’s original concept for a film was based around the annual Met Costume Gala (which takes place May 4). It seems Wintour didn’t like the idea, not to mention shooting in the Met would pose too many problems, so she nixed the concept and “proposed The September Issue as a structure.” Cutler, freshly manicured and having undergone a wardrobe adjustment for his premiere meeting with the bob, agreed. And the film was born. What is interesting about their exchange, Cutler divulges, is that when the director said he’d require director’s cut for the project to move forward, Wintour simply replied: “My father was a journalist, I’m a journalist, I totally understand.”

Over the course of filming one thing that especially caught Cutler’s eye was Wintour’s idiosyncratic way of communicating: “It’s mostly in silences, gestures, and the occasional use of language. It’s more than enough and she always gets her way. When she’s not getting her way, she’s happy to speak at greater length. In her work environment, that’s how she communicates with everyone. Some people see the film and say, she seems so closed. She’s a closed gal. That’s who she is. But the times that she does open up in her life are the times that you see her open in the film -- when she’s with Bee [Schaeffer], when she’s talking about her dad, talking about her siblings. It’s family [that opens her up].”

Cutler leaves us with a final impression (one that makes you wonder if Wintour hasn’t put him under her spell as well) of the controversial fashion maven behind the Vogue empire: “The only way to be Anna Wintour is to be that way. Apparently the only way to do it is to be this way. Anna is really a singular figure. There has never been anyone like her, and there may never again be anyone like her.”