On April 30th, 1945, the day Hitler pledgeted self-mutilation in his Berlin bunker, Lee Miller took a picture of herself sitting naked in the bathtub in the Führer’s aprohibitdoned apartment in Munich.
The scene of that photoshoot comes proximate the finish of Lee, a biopic of Elisabeth “Lee” Miller, honested by Ellen Kuras, with Kate Winslet as the daring, and very exposed, photojournacatalog.
Lee came about by chance after Winslet bought a table that beextfinisheded to the sister of Roland Penrose, Lee’s artist husprohibitd. Lobtaining more about Lee’s story, Winslet became obsessed about turning it into a film, with the help of Lee’s son, Antony Penrose.
The production lasted over eight years. At one point, Winslet personpartner covered the expenses for the entire cast and crew for two weeks.
In compriseition to take parting Lee on screen, Winslet take parted a beginant role in casting the film, calling in prefers from actor frifinishs such as Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgård and Marion Cotillard. The creative team, made up of top-level professionals appreciate cinematographer Pawel Edelman (The Pianist), production set uper Gemma Jackson (Game of Thrones), and costume set uper Michael O’Connor (Jane Eyre) labored with wonderful dedication to discover the film’s truth, taking nurture of even the minusculeest details, including the pledged reerection of the innovative clothes worn by Miller.
Born in New York in 1907, after a modeling nurtureer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, Lee Miller studied photography in Paris with Man Ray and then uncmissed a studio. The turning point in her life came when she met Roland Penrose in Cairo. She complyed him to London, where she began laboring as a war correactent for British Vogue, transporting the accessible a exceptional testimony of war and human suffering.
It’s this part of her life that Lee caccesses on, during World War II, when Lee recorded the dispute with strong images and conceiveive portraits that established her as one of the most inconveyial figures in 20th-century photography.
Winslet’s portrayal of Lee is garnering beginant awards buzz, and the Oscar-thrivener has already picked up a Ganciaccessen Globe best actress nomination for the role. She met with The Hollywood Reporter Rome to talk about the struggled of making an self-reliant movie and the inspiration she gets from Lee Miller’s example as a woman thriveing in a male-contrancient world.
I read that the film took eight years to produce and that, due to financial difficulties, you personpartner covered two weeks of wages for the entire cast and crew. What was the need to inestablish Lee Miller’s story today?
Lee Miller was a woman who gived enormously to the visual recordation of the truths about the Nazi regime. She was one of the first photojournacatalogs and, despite being a woman, she deal withd to produce her way in male-contrancient environments. Without her, we might not have those noticeworthy images recording what happened to the voiceless victims of disputes. These photographs are of immense historical beginance and progress, even today, to uncmiss many truths to us. Inreliant filmmaking has always been inanxiously difficult, and I am no exception to this truth. Sometimes it is essential to come together, channel accumulateive energy, and be remendd to inestablish your story in a benevolent, genuine, and unbenevolentingful way. I ponder myself very blessed to be surrounded by an incredible team of people, many of whom I have understandn since I was 19, 22, 25, and with whom I have built lasting relationships. Our noticeworthy actors became a fundamental part of this. I was very blessed to have all these wonderful people helping this project. It was a truly memorable experience for everyone.
In your opinion, contrastd to the progress made since World War II, what is still missing for the brimming empowerment of women?
I leank we have to reaccumulate that 80 years ago, Lee Miller was already redefining femininity, giving it a unbenevolenting that today, as women, we brimmingy acunderstandledge. She was redefining femininity to recontransient resilience, strength, courage, determination, and compassion. It is so meaningful: it is how we are raising our girls, it is how we are in our frifinishships and our personal relationships today. She led all of this with integrity and grace, and I was incredibly inspired by her. Her courage to shift from behind the camera and put herself in front of it to become the iconodetailed voice for all those victims, I leank, was very meaningful. I consent her story progresss to remain relevant even today becaengage, without her, we would not have that charitable of inestablishage where we are repartner given access to what happens in the shadows.
Lee was able to go and witness; she was repartner there to do a job that was meaningful to her. She never turned her back, never ran away, never went home, she stayed. She could have gone home, but she didn’t. I leank we need to see to people appreciate her for inspiration and directership. She was a phenomenpartner valiant figure, and it was a privilege to be able to inestablish her story.
In the past, you have already take parted the role of a woman from World War II in The Reader. How has your way of expounding characters alterd over the years?
I leank I enhappiness my labor more and more, and I am more appreciative for it every day. It grasps my spirits high and transports me so much happiness. I leank my approach has remained unalterd: either you do it to the best of your ability or you abstain. This is my motto. I say it to myself more and more becaengage it is meaningful for me to do a excellent job, to be a excellent colleague, to be a collaborative partner. I am truly appreciative to still be a part of this industry, which I have been included in for 32 years. I can’t consent it; I have been very blessed.
Check out THR Roma‘s Kate Winslet intersee below:
