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EXCLUSIVE: Kate Winslet shares why bringing Lee Miller’s story to life was so important to her

The Oscar winner recently sat down with The Weekly to discuss her new film…

Content Warning: This article touches on the topic of suicide and sexual assault which may be triggering for some readers.

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Lee Miller is probably the most remarkable photographer of the 20th century who you’ve never heard of, but Kate Winslet — along with Lee’s son Antony Penrose — is determined to change that, and give the fearless war correspondent the recognition she deserves.

It’s been a long time coming.

About a decade ago, Kate spotted a dining table at an antiques auction that had once belonged to the surrealist, war photographer, Vogue model and muse, Lee.

She knew Lee had also been a cordon bleu cook — her surrealist dinner parties featuring breast-shaped cauliflower and blue spaghetti were legendary.

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She also knew that it was around this table that Lee and her husband, artist Roland Penrose, entertained their famous friends, including Picasso and Man Ray.

And so, Kate bought the table. But that was just the beginning of Kate Winslet feeling an affinity with the late Lee Miller.

kate winslet
Image Credit: Caroline McCredie

“I knew who she was in terms of her work, but I didn’t really know anything about her life,” Kate tells The Weekly.

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“It was then that I thought, why hasn’t anyone made a film about Lee Miller? It seemed so obvious.”

Flashforward to today and the Lee film, which stars Kate in the titular role, is in cinemas across the nation.

The biography concentrates on the years Lee spent as a war correspondent, during which time, she captured some of WWII’s defining images, including herself having a bath in Hitler’s abandoned Munich apartment.

It was taken on the same day the Dachau death camp was liberated — with Lee documenting the unspeakable horrors there — and when Hitler died by suicide.  

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Lee is usually associated with surrealist photographer Man Ray, to whom she was a lover, collaborator, and muse.

a still from lee, kate winslet's new movie based on lee miller's life
Kate Winslet leads a star-studded cast in Lee. Image Credit: StudioCanal UK

She’s also known for her relationship with Picasso, who painted her six times, Jean Cocteau, and other giants of the art world.

While not dismissing the influence of these men in Lee’s life — Picasso and Man Ray do feature in the film — Lee releases her from the male gaze that had dominated so much of her life.

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It celebrates the extraordinary achievements of a woman who refused to be constrained by gender stereotypes.

“It’s such bulls**t,” says Kate. “Describing women of historical significance alongside people who they dated or slept with. They don’t do that for men!”

It’s no coincidence that key roles behind the camera also feature women: Kate co-produces, Ellen Kuras directs, and former Vogue editor Marion Hume co-wrote the screenplay.

Set mostly amidst the rubble, filth and mud of a ruined Europe, Kate appears in every scene, dressed in her combat uniform, or flashing forward to an ageing Lee reminiscing about the past.  

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“People say to me, ‘You are so real in this, you didn’t wear any make-up, that was very brave’,” Kate shares. “Brave to me is someone in a conflict zone and photographing that. You don’t say to male actors, ‘Gosh, your performance was so brave, you grew a beard’. Or ‘You had a paunch’.

lee miller
The real Lee Miller. Image Credit: Getty

 “I am so done with this idea that we need to portray women as being perfect or of looking a certain way,” Kate, who has been subject to the public gaze herself since she was 19 years old, continues.

“I’m infinitely more fascinated by women who have life experience written all over their faces and backs of their hands. Why are we still scrutinizing women in this weird way? And that was part of why I wanted to make this film about this phenomenal woman. She rolled up her sleeves and got on with it.”

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With an unflinching focus, Lee captured the trauma of frontline doctors and nurses as they amputated limbs and bandaged charred bodies, napalm clouds above St Malo, and women shamed and paraded with shaved heads for sleeping with the enemy.

At the Dachau death camp, Lee climbed amongst rotting corpses in an abandoned cattle car, and piles of emaciated bodies left unburied. “Believe it”, she wrote to her editor at Vogue, Audrey Withers, imploring her to not turn away from the horrors of war.

“Lee wasn’t photographing the soldiers or the bloodshed, she was looking into the cracks and the corners, making sure the stories of the innocent victims were revealed to the world,” Kate says.

“She didn’t go, ‘Oh this is too much, I’m going home’. She kept going, she went further, and she stayed until the bitter end.”

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kate winslet and antony penrose
Kate with Lee’s son, Antony. Image Credit: Caroline McCredie

Lee’s uncompromising view of the world, says Kate, is because of the traumatic events of her childhood. At just seven years of age, Lee had been raped.

“She was absolutely motivated by this sense of truth and justice because of what happened to her as a child. She was an extraordinary champion of other women,” Kate says. “She wasn’t going to lurk in the shadows, she wasn’t going to let that thing define her.”

Returning from war, Lee refused to speak of her experiences. She buried the trauma deep within herself and turned to alcohol to numb the pain.

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As a child, Antony had a difficult relationship with his mother as she wrestled with her demons and the demands of motherhood, and he was largely raised by a housekeeper.

He had no idea of Lee’s role during the war and only discovered the truth after her death in 1970.

While rummaging in the attic at the family home, Farley Farm in England, Antony came across boxes of negatives and prints — 60,000 in total — that told an incredible story.

a still from lee
Image Credit: StudioCanal UK
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Since then, he’s become the curator and champion of his mother’s work and legacy. Ensuring the world never forgets her extraordinary achievements.

Although many filmmakers have wanted to tell Lee’s story over the years, Antony felt no one has understood his tormented, brilliant mother like Kate has. They have become incredibly close while making the film.

Antony is played by Josh O’Connor, who appears as a journalist interviewing Lee later in her life.

“The film has been closure for Antony,” Kate tells us. “When he saw Josh and myself playing those scenes, he said, ‘My God, he is saying things I really wished I’d been able to say to her’.

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“She was a complicated person,” Kate reflects.  “I didn’t want to shy away from the emotional evidence of that in her imperfections, and how she walks through the world. She wasn’t afraid to stand and bear witness.”

Lee, starring Kate Winslet, is currently in cinemas around Australia. Learn more about the film (including its streaming release date and full cast list) here.

If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit their website, or call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit their website.

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