‘It is very, very hard to make independent films, and extremely hard to make films as a woman, about a woman,’ Kate Winslet says the day before the premiere of her new film, Lee, the extraordinary story of Second World War photographer Lee Miller, which Winslet produced and starred in. It was eight years in the making.
‘I walked away with the feeling of pure triumph that we’d done it,’ she says. Google ‘Lee Miller’ and you’ll find she’s often referred to as an ‘ex-model’ or ‘former muse’ of a male artist. ‘Descriptions of her that are entirely through the male gaze,’ Kate Winslet says with a flash of annoyance. ‘And incorrectly define who she was. She was a model for a sliver of her life and she hated it. What she aspired to be was a photographer, and she became an extraordinarily good one.’
Miller defied the authorities, travelling to Europe to report from the frontline of the Second World War. She captured haunting images from field hospitals in Normandy, the death camps in Dachau and Buchenwald and inside Hitler’s Munich home after his death, where she was famously pictured naked in his bath – her boots, encrusted with mud from Dachau, placed poignantly next to the tub.
‘Lee is a phenomenally important person in our history and someone who knew how to throw herself at life, embracing everything that came her way – even if she got bruised. And I found that so incredibly inspiring,’ Winslet says. ‘I wanted to tell the story of a middle-aged woman who was flawed, complicated, messy and difficult sometimes, because when a woman has those qualities, it doesn’t mean they aren’t worth celebrating.’
Taking on the ‘enormous responsibility’ of portraying Miller, Winslet immersed herself in her work archives – ‘I felt a bit possessed, to be honest’ – and developed a close bond with her son, Antony Penrose, even calling him before a particularly sensitive scene in which Miller reveals a long-hidden trauma, in order to come up with the right dialogue.
Physically, the nine-week shoot was gruelling; Winslet badly injured her back on the first day of filming but carried on with the 4am call times. Then there was the organisational onslaught that comes with producing a film, from the financial (at one point she personally bankrolled the cast and crew’s wages for a fortnight), to the logistical. ‘Round the clock, you’re constantly having to adapt, to jump ship if the weather’s changed, or you can’t shut down the street because it’s too expensive.’
Still, she’s planning to produce more films. ‘I learned a tremendous amount. And even though it was incredibly hard, I did love it: taking something from the very beginning and seeing it all the way through.’ Does she like being the boss? ‘It’s not so much about being in charge as being a good leader, knowing you can create an environment that people want to be in.’ On Lee, Kate assembled a talented crew, ‘people I’ve known for years… There’s a huge amount to be said for forming those relationships and being a good person, because if you don’t behave well, trust me, they’ll choose a different project.’
Next year, Winslet turns 50 and plans to do 50 incredible things to mark it – quite the challenge for someone who has 37 films, five BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, four SAG awards and two Emmys to her name. But with Lee she has one huge achievement ticked off. It is the story she really wanted to tell and now she is finally seeing it come to life. ‘This is a woman who, 80 years ago, redefined femininity as power, resilience, courage, determination. When I look at a younger generation of women, that’s what I see – and I feel excited.’
Lee is in cinemas now