Kate Winslet as Lee Miller in ‘Lee.’
“There was no movie magic on this. We were really doing it,” explains Kate Winslet as we discuss her latest film, Lee. “It had to feel real.”
The biopic focuses on the life and work of pioneering American photographer Lee Miller. She was a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. Winslet, also a producer on the project, plays Miller, who captures both the humanity and shocking inhumanity she encountered during the conflict. Many of her iconic photographs are painstakingly recreated in the film.
“We were guided by Lee’s images. Every time we include a real image of hers in the film, we absolutely staged our shots that way. We were in charge of creating our own narrative around how those images came to be taken, how she got herself into those situations, what the experience was like for her, and the connections she formed with people,” the actress recalls. “There’s a scene where Lee’s taking the photograph of a collaborator having her head shaved and being shamed publicly in the streets of Saint-Malo. When you look at the images of those poor women, they look into her eyes. She was so extraordinary at forming connections with people where she could see into their soul, and that’s where she was so utterly unique.”
“It was important that we honored what her experience was when she was capturing those images,” she continues. “How on earth did she have the courage to climb up and into a train carriage, stand amongst the corpses, and photograph the faces of the young, healthy-looking soldiers staring in, but she did that. We had to do whatever we needed to do to replicate exactly what she photographed. In doing so, there were many challenges, as you would imagine, and anyone who has done any work on the Holocaust or has experienced researching it, looking at those images, knows that there are things that stick to you. That happened, but it was unavoidable if we were going to truly honor this woman and the phenomenal work that she did. Lee wanted to make sure those stories were not lost and forgotten, that they were told and shown to the world.”
In order to maintain authenticity, Winslet immersed herself in Miller’s legacy and was given full access to the archive at Farleys House in East Sussex, England, where Lee lived and subsequently died.
“Her son, Anthony Penrose, was a pivotal part of the process for me,” she says. “He was by my side as a collaborative partner, and he gave me real access to who she was behind everything, including all the available literature written about her. The more I got to know him, the more he shared about his relationship with her and who she was between the cracks.” Josh O’Connor plays Penrose in Lee which lands exclusively in theaters on Friday, September 27, 2024.
Winslet Took Matters Into Her Own Hands To Ensure ‘Lee’ Was Authentic
Something else Winslet did was learn how to use Miller’s trademark Rolleiflex camera.
“I had to learn to use it incredibly well,” she enthuses. “I was taking photographs of everything we were shooting as we were within scenes, recreating those images. It had to feel like an extension of my arms. It could not feel like a prop. I had to be able to do it without looking, and I had to know every single part of it. I practiced for weeks with my eyes closed so that I would know how to do that. I was the only person who could change the film in the camera. It’s quite a complicated thing to do in a Rolleiflex, and that was great because it meant that if I ran out of film during a take, I would just change the film within the take, and we would carry on shooting. It just had to become a part of me in the way the Rolleiflex was a part of who Lee Miller was.”
The Sense and Sensibility and Heavenly Creatures star carried that into her everyday life long after Lee wrapped.
“I didn’t really put it down. I still have it, Winslet confirms. “I photograph my family with it and other things and people. It’s a wonderful, wonderful camera to know how to use, and I wasn’t familiar with the camera at all, but I’m not overly familiar, or even necessarily comfortable, with operating contemporary cameras. I love everything about the eccentricities of that Rolleiflex, and I don’t know if I’d ever really want to learn how to use a proper, modern camera. It has been a really wonderful thing to have come into my life.”
(Left to right) Andy Samberg as David E. Scherman and Kate Winslet as Lee Miller in ‘Lee.’
Lee boasts an incredible ensemble cast that also includes Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Alexander Skarsgård, and Andy Samberg in his first dramatic role as American photojournalist David E. Scherman, who teamed up with Miller for several assignments and took the iconic photo of her in the bathtub of Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich.
“He looks like him,” Winslet enthuses. “He looks almost exactly like him. It was one of our writers, Marion Hume, whom I’ve known since I was 16. She called me and said, ‘Have you ever noticed how much Andy Samberg looks like Davy Scherman?’ I thought, ‘Actually, my God, he really does.’ She said, ‘You should ask him to play the part,’ I thought, ‘My God. Well, first of all, he might not want to. Secondly, he’s got to read the script and see if he even likes it, and thirdly, would he be comfortable making that jump from comedic performing to something more serious?’ I was so lucky. He said yes, and he could do it.”
“Andy was so still. Sometimes, he would say, ‘Okay, Winslet, what do we do?’ and I would say, ‘Trust me. Do nothing with your face.’ There were some moments where just doing nothing and letting the story support the scene. He had to really learn to trust that because, as a comedian, you’re pushing everything, plot, gags, propelling the story forward. It was a totally different rhythm that he truly had to learn, and he just did it. Andy was absolutely incredible, and we became very close. We had a relationship that was very jovial offset, like Lee and Davey. David was always ragging her, teasing her, and pointing out her faults and flaws, and we had a little bit of that, which was fantastic.”
Reality And Truth Helped Set Lee Miller Free
Lee sees Winslet, who is no stranger to garnering acclaim for performances in films and TV shows such as Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mildred Pierce, and Mare of Easttown, give her second stellar turn of the year, the other being as Chancellor Elena Vernham in the HBO political satire The Regime. The characters are polar opposites: Lee seeks to show the people the truth, and Vernham sells lies.
“Lee came first, so we filmed this from September to December 2022, and then we delayed the release because of the strike,” she explains. “I really wanted so passionately to be able to talk about it as I am now. I look back on it and I just think I must have been mad. I only had seven weeks between wrapping Lee and starting shooting The Regime, so it was quite a leap. I’m sure, subconsciously, maybe a part of myself thought, ‘Okay, if I just do the opposite of what I’ve felt and been experiencing on Lee, maybe that will be a good thing for my brain?’ I have no idea, but you’re absolutely right about completely opposing roles. It sometimes happens that way.”
Kate Winslet attends the History Talks 2024 Red Carpet at David Geffen Theater, The Academy Museum … [+] of Motion Pictures on September 21, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Right out of the gate in Lee, and without being reductive, Miller’s awareness of what makes her who she is and what she brings to the table is set out with the line “I was good at drinking, having sex and taking pictures.”
“You’re absolutely right that she lived life full throttle, being exactly who she was, making no apology for that, and I think a lot of that came from a certain degree of defiance after what had happened to her as a child,” Winslet says. When Miller was seven years old, she was raped by a family friend while visiting relatives. “That level of trauma made her so determined not to be defined by that horrific event. As such, I think she was able to see the world differently, to look into the eyes of humanity and see evil where it lurked and extreme beauty wherever she found it. She didn’t judge people. She believed in revealing the truth and subsequently being truthful about herself to herself. It’s quite amazing.”
Understanding Miller’s lens, having spent so much time learning about her life and legacy, and with the Rolleiflex now becoming an extension of herself, Winslet has still yet to take the next step and direct something. Is that in her future?
“Not yet,” she says with a smile, a vocal inflection almost like a question mark, and a pause. “Bye!”
