Film Kate Winslet: "The feminist movement gave me strength"
British actress and producer Kate Winslet presented her new film "Lee" at the 20th Zurich Film Festival. The feminist movement of recent years encouraged her to make the biopic about the American war reporter Lee Miller.
08.10.2024, 15:11
SDA
The evening before, Kate Winslet ("Titanic", "The Reader", "The Holiday") had appeared humorous and sociable at the Golden Eye Awards ceremony. During the interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency in Zurich on Tuesday, she was serious.
The fact that "Lee" is more than just another new film for the 49-year-old Oscar winner is evident in the pronounced urgency of her words. And in her gestures. For example, when she leans back thoughtfully before her answers, only to lean over the table a moment later and look the other person directly in the eye as she speaks. With this independent film portrait of the American war photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977), who never really got rid of the label "ex-model" and "muse of US photographer Man Ray", Kate Winslet wants to send a clear message.
They worked on "Lee" for around ten years. A lot has happened in the feminist movement during this time. How have these developments influenced your project?
Kate Winslet: "I never doubted that I would make this movie, but there were moments when I wondered how I was going to manage it all. The feminist movement of the last few years definitely encouraged me to keep at it. But it also made me feel like it was okay to take my time with the script or securing finances. Yes, she gave me strength."
Surprisingly, the film does not focus as much on how hard it must have been for Lee Miller to assert herself in a male-dominated environment.
Winslet: "We didn't intend to portray it that way. It was enough for us to show that she was one of very few female war photographers. The uniqueness of her work was much more important to us. The nature of her photography, the way she used her Rolleiflex to meet people's eyes through it."
Are there any documents that prove how Lee Miller felt as a woman of her time?
Winslet: "I've read diary entries from her youth. Lee Miller had severe psychological problems as a teenager, and very low self-esteem. The fact that she overcame these difficulties as an adult is remarkable."
You have told us in interviews how strongly you feel connected to Lee Miller. Did she make decisions that you can't understand?
Winslet: "Unlike me, who became a mother for the first time at the age of 25, Lee Miller didn't have a child during the war. In that sense, of course, I can't understand everything exactly. But no, I never questioned her decisions. But maybe that's also because I never questioned my own conviction to make this movie."
What could Lee Miller have learned from you?
Winslet: "I'll be 50 next year, which I think is great. And the older I get, the more I learn to shift down a gear every now and then. To think before I speak, for example. I haven't become more careful, but perhaps more mindful, to use a somewhat hackneyed but also apt word. I would have liked Lee to have been able to pause for a moment."
"Lee" is a film about a woman who has long been unjustly reduced to her time as a model. But it's also a movie about war. What role does that play for you in view of the current world situation?
Winslet: "There will always be innocent victims in conflicts. Lee's intention to look into the dark corners, to be the visual voice of these victims, remains extremely important. I think the film gives us the opportunity to better recognize the importance of the work of war reporters. And to appreciate it. "*
*This text by Miriam Margani, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
