ENCOUNTER – Defending her biopic of the famous war photographer, the British actress is hitting the awards season streets. His efforts were rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination.
Kate Winslet will have a busy start to 2025. The 49-year-old British actress will be in the running on January 5 for two Golden Globes. One on TV for his performance in the HBO satire The Regime. The other side of cinema for his portrait of war photographer Lee Miller. Released in French cinemas at the beginning of October, Lee is still showing in a few theaters. Despite the film's modest box office and mixed reviews, the heroine of Titanic hits the awards season with conviction in the hope of landing nominations for the Golden Globes (which he did) but also for the actors' union award. Essential steps in view of the Oscars which will be announced on January 17.
Speaking with passion about this film that she has been carrying at arm's length for a decade, this fall the actress increased the number of screenings and question-and-answer sessions hosted by her friends Leonardo DiCaprio and Jodie Foster. Kate Winslet, who impresses with her physiognomic skills by putting on the slightest face crossed at festivals and press briefings, does not count her time. It is in this context that Le Figaro was able to chat with her.
You play the title role in this film but you are also the producer. Is this one of your most personal films?
Lee took up almost ten years of my life, a huge chapter. My 10 year old son has always known me to talk. Sometimes he is surprised to see that I have not exhausted the subject (laughs). We had the journey that a lot of independent films take. Need to take a step back, need additional financial support, need to redevelop the script. Acquainting ourselves with Lee Miller's vast archive took patience. Like selecting the most memorable part of her life, the one for which she would like to be remembered. We also encountered skepticism from potential investors who asked me, “How can we find this nice woman?” Noticing the extent to which Lee's figure can be misunderstood was a big source of frustration and depression.
Over time, the lines between me and Lee became very blurred: what she had experienced, what I was experiencing. I saw emotional similarities. I couldn't believe it. I could see perfectly why she was behaving this way. I felt the same impulse. I felt like I was hand in hand with her. His strength and determination touched me. She helped redefine what femininity, compassion and integrity were. So many values that we seek to instill in our children. Delaying the release of the film, as we did, and waiting for the actors' and writers' strike to end, was necessary. It's important for me to be able to talk about this film, to support it.
How familiar were you with Lee Miller's work before you took on his portrait?
In 2001, I visited the exhibition dedicated to him at the Edinburgh Museum. I was familiar with his war photos and other photographic work. On the other hand, I knew nothing about his life until I met his son Anthony Penrose in 2015. I had no idea she had lived so many lives. Model, photographer… She has never stopped reinventing herself and taking risks. She couldn't stay still. After the war she tried the facelift and transformed herself into a gourmet chef. His example reminds us every day that we can leave the house and make things happen. I don't understand why no director has had the idea of telling his inspiring trajectory. Doing so by emancipating herself from the male gaze, by not reducing her to her love life, by taking care not to sexualize or victimize her, which she has been far too often, has been one of the privileges of my career. .
Anthony Penrose was your accomplice from beginning to end.
It would have been unthinkable to make this film without him and not to build this portrait around the relationship between Lee Miller and his son. It was a pivotal link in Lee's life. It was imperative that I earn his trust: we became friends. Just today I received a text from him. Not a week goes by without us writing to each other. I was overwhelmed by his confidences. Some he had already made public in his books. But he also passed on to me many anecdotes that until then he had always kept silent. It gave me a glimpse of Lee Miller's cracks, her moments of vulnerability, the emotional price she paid to cover all these events and give a voice to the victims of World War II.
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What guided you in the structure of the film built around his memories of the war and a conversation with his son, played by Josh O'Connor?
His life was so rich that it was impossible to mention everything. We had to make choices and exclude certain points. It was quite a difficult stage. Each decade of his life was full of exciting stories. I thought this film was for those who didn't know Lee Miller. I wanted them to discover it on its own merits. Not like Man Ray's lover or muse, the model on the cover of magazines… Everyone clings to that window in their twenties. But for her, this corresponded to a very brief period. What interested me was to look backwards at the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s. This period made Lee the mature, imperfect, courageous and resilient woman that we know, the one who is party to the war reveal the truth of this conflict. What she experienced and saw while reporting, including the deportation camps, left her with massive post-traumatic stress. This greatly affected his parenting, his relationship with his son. For a long time, the scenario began with Anthony opening the boxes that his mother had stored in the attic and finding himself surrounded by a mountain of 60,000 negatives. Offering this dialogue between Lee and his son who interviews him was also a way for us to allow him to turn the page, to offer him a form of catharsis. Which is the case today.
You share Lee's poster with several pillars of French cinema Marion Cotillard, Noemie Merlant, Patrick Mille. How did you involve them in the adventure?
I was lucky. They said yes immediately. They brought so much joy and passion to this shoot and to their characters. It wouldn't have made sense for me to hire English actors playing with a French accent. I wanted to be as authentic as possible.
Is there a photograph by Lee Miller that particularly struck you and that you were keen to show in the film?
I am always very moved when I look at the photo that her reporting teammate David Scherman took of her in her hotel room at the time of the liberation of Paris. In the photo, we see a room turned upside down. His clothes are lying around the room, like whiskey bottles, papers and ashtrays. All the cardinal elements of Lee's life are in the frame. Of that moment, David Scherman said he captured Lee at the peak of her beauty. I find his words moving. It was important to recreate this scene.
Do you want to continue this experience as a producer?
Yes, without hesitation. I am currently working on another project. I've been in the industry since I was 17. I will have 50 next year. Continuing to learn new things in editing and sound mixing is exhilarating. This is why I get up in the morning! Being a producer is not an easy task. When you are an actor, you can allow yourself moments, days of break. Not at all here. As soon as the alarm goes off, you check what happened during the night. Are the bills paid? Is this person you need on set available? There is always something that requires your attention and energy. It's great to be at the source of such dynamism, to be able to pull everyone behind you!
