Q&A: Kate Winslet on filming the story of World War II photographer Lee Miller

When Kate Winslet When she came across Lee Miller’s extraordinary story, she didn’t want to let go.

Miller was an American photographer who became a correspondent for British Vogue during World War II, photographing everything from post-Blitzkrieg London to the liberation of Dachau. (In 1945, David E Scherman took a pretty famous photo of her in Hitler’s bathtub in Munich

Before the war, Miller had already led many lives as a model and so-called “muse” of surrealists like Man-Ray. She then continued to document the aftermath in Eastern Europe while also struggling with alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trauma from sexual assault at a young age.

Winslet didn’t just want to play this woman; She wanted to bring the story to life. With that, she embarked on a nearly decade-long journey to bring “Lee” to the big screen. It opens nationwide on Friday.

The Oscar-winning actress spoke to The Associated Press about the film, its impact and the hardest day she’s ever had as an actress. Notes have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Why do you think Lee Miller captured your imagination so much?

WINSLET: A lot of people understandably ask me, why Lee Miller? Why now? This is evident, not least because of the meaning of her work, but also because of her representation of what it means to be female. She redefined femininity 80 years ago to mean everything it means to us today: resilience and compassion and determination and togetherness and empathy and strength. She wasn’t some aspiring little hotshot trying to make a name for herself. This was a middle-aged woman who had already lived so much by the time she went to Europe. She knew what was at stake. She knew she was putting herself in danger. She knew it was a big risk, but she did it because she felt the need to be that visual voice for victims of conflict.

AP: Many of my colleagues who work at the Associated Press run toward danger and conflict to bear witness. Did you feel like you could relate to that, or was it more from a distance?

WINSLET: When I go to work, it’s never remotely. The idea of ​​protecting yourself or relaxing at the end of the day with a nice hot bath and a glass of wine is something I just haven’t learned. And I don’t know if I want that. I don’t think that’s how I work. I started this process in 2015, I sat with (Miller’s son) Antony Penrose and (learned about) his time not meeting his mother until after she died. It completely blew me away. Not only did he learn who she really was and what she had done during the war, but he also developed another level of understanding about why she had been the way she had been as a mother. As soon as I met Antony, something happened to me. Something that goes beyond acting.

AP: This is the feature film debut of cinematographer Ellen Kuras, with whom you have had a long relationship since “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

WINSLET: She may have been the first cinematographer I worked with at that point. But there weren’t very many women on set back then. There were almost never women in the camera department. Ellen and I were kind of thrown together because we were on a very male-dominated set – we were happy to be there – but two of the few women. And although it was a great adventure, it was a really tough shoot. We always had so much to do in one day and it happened to be a brutal winter in New York. We remained friends and worked together again on A Little Chaos (Winslet suggested we do this). Alan Rickman). I just thought: Why doesn’t she make features? It made sense on so many levels. This was someone who had spent decades of his life being a visual eye and conveying narratives in very powerful visual ways. And that’s exactly what Lee Miller did. I wouldn’t have liked it if it had been a man. I almost feel like Lee shook her fists at me from her grave.

AP: People have tried to tell Lee’s story before, but her son never felt like he fully understood it until you came along. This film doesn’t shy away from all facets of Lee Miller: her drive, her demons and her trauma.

WINSLET: We made the film because I wanted people to discover Lee Miller as that Lee Miller, the real Lee Miller on her terms in her most formative decade, and not as Man-Ray’s ex-lover and former muse, so to speak reductive, sexist terms.

Her penchant for injustice was so strong within her. And because she didn’t tell anyone what happened to her as a child, it fueled her and gave her a new perspective on the world. Women survivors of sexual abuse that I spoke to during my preparation process had two things in common: they never told and that it gave them the ability to see evil from a distance. Lee had that. She had this sort of innate ability to endure hell.

In the scene where she (Vogue editor) reveals to Audrey (Withers) what happened to her when she was 7, Andrea (Riseborough, who plays Withers) and I said at the end of the day of filming that it was hands down the hardest Day ever was filming that we have ever done in our lives as actors. Just this one day. It sounds a bit extreme. I kind of shy away from talking about an actor’s process because at the end of the day it’s not rocket science. We don’t cure cancer. We ourselves are not on the front line. But sometimes you get to the point where you feel a little obsessed. And it can be a bit scary.

It took my breath away how complete strangers would come up to me, grab me by the arm, pull me close and say, “That was me.” I was told never to tell.” That’s when filmmaking can become truly extraordinary be when you can make a viewer feel like they are being held or seen for a split second.