‘Inspired’ Kate Winslet revels in telling Lee Miller’s tale
In an exclusive audience with Vogue Australia, Kate Winslet discusses how she made it a personal passion project to bring the life of trailblazing World War II correspondent and Vogue photojournalist Lee Miller to the big screen.
Kate Winslet has played many multifaceted women on screen, but it’s her role as trailblazing World War II correspondent and Vogue photojournalist Lee Miller whose story she feels most compelled to tell.
As producer and star of Lee, which hits cinemas this month, Winslet has made it a personal passion project to bring Miller’s life to the big screen.
Beyond being a Vogue model, Surrealist artist and muse and lover to Man Ray, in midlife Lee Miller followed Allied forces into Europe where she reported on the atrocities at Dachau concentration camp and famously posed in Hitler’s Munich bathtub the same day he died in a bunker in Berlin.
As part of the promotional tour for Lee, Winslet, who appears on the cover of October Vogue, attended an exclusive Q&A yesterday led by Vogue Australia to discuss her latest project.
The actor was joined on the panel by Vogue Australia's editorial director Edwina McCann, Miller's son Antony Penrose (today's custodian of the Lee Miller archives), and the film's producer Kate Solomon. The panel discussed the challenges behind the decade-long project and the significant roles played by the myriad of women working to bring the film to life.
“What I honestly feel is a profound duty to redefine how she is viewed, to make sure that this younger generation of women who might be discovering Lee Miller for the first time, or simply coming to know about her, know the part that she’d be most proudest of,” Winslet tells Vogue Australia.
“Lee was complicated, difficult, not entirely loveable but admirable beyond measure. And by the far the most inspiring person I’ve ever played.”
Alongside friends of Longines and Vogue, a host of industry insiders were in attendance for the event. Australian actor Mia Wasikowska showed her support for Winslet as did a number of rising Australian stars including Miah Madden, Annabel Wolfe and Hoa Xuande.
For the cover of October Vogue, which is on sale now, Winslet was interviewed by longtime friend and former Vogue Australia editor Marion Hume, who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay. The pair worked closely with Miller’s son, Antony Penrose, whose biography, The Lives of Lee Miller, serves as the basis for the film.
Winslet is quick to call out Miller, who died in 1977 at the age of 70, as a woman who was equal parts courageous and complicated, but she resists drawing any parallels to call herself brave. Even when reflecting on ongoing bullying and media pressure to adhere to a particular body type in her 20s as a young woman in the film industry, Winslet is adamant she’s just a normal person pushing back.
“Ballsy. Rebellious. Outspoken. These big punchy words,” she tells Vogue Australia. “All I’ve ever done is be a woman with an opinion. Curves? Just call it a normal body that isn’t toned and toned within an inch of its life.
“Not wearing makeup on screen? That’s not brave. I’m not in Ukraine. I’m an actor. I love my job. I’m bloody lucky to do it. I’m not on the frontline.”
Winslet embraces ageing. “I see getting older as thrilling. I’m becoming more comfortable in myself every year … It’s more a sense of safety within who I am, where I’m at. I’m very happy with my physical self, how my face is. As we get older, we become more womanly, more juicy, more interesting. We have more stories to tell.”
Lee is out in cinemas on Thursday October 24. Read the full story in the October issue of Vogue, on sale now.
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