Kate Winslet Talks Ice Baths, Raising Chickens, and Her New Film | Vogue
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello, hello.
00:06 Welcome.
00:07 - Thank you.
00:08 - To an in conversation with Vogue.
00:09 It's a real pleasure to have you here.
00:11 - Thank you very much.
00:12 I don't think I've ever done one of these before actually.
00:13 Been interviewed for Vogue many times in the past.
00:16 Yeah, I've never had a sit down
00:17 in front of a camera like this.
00:18 So it's lovely.
00:19 - Well, it's lovely to have you.
00:20 Having known and watched you for almost my entire life,
00:23 I actually feel like I can't imagine a day in the life
00:26 of Kate Winslet if you felt so bold.
00:29 - It usually involves making lists, shopping lists
00:32 and things I need to do.
00:35 Our home is full of things and chaos and color
00:38 and dogs and people.
00:39 And there's always food smells, absolutely always.
00:42 We keep chickens, which I love.
00:44 So there's often, you know,
00:46 the gathering of the chicken eggs.
00:47 We don't live on a farm.
00:48 We live by the sea.
00:49 We are not isolated at all.
00:50 We very much live in a lovely neighborhood community
00:53 with great people around us.
00:55 There's always water involved, particularly cold water.
00:58 So there's usually a cold water dip that will take place.
01:00 - I was gonna say, very good for the noggin,
01:02 the cold water dunking, isn't it?
01:03 - We do, we are no strangers to ice baths in our house.
01:06 - Very good.
01:06 - If ever anyone gets a bit blue or troubled by something,
01:09 we're like, okay, get in an ice bath.
01:11 - Those dopamine levels, they stay up.
01:13 - I'm telling you, so there's a lot of that.
01:14 - But then I suppose there's times like probably this autumn
01:16 with, you know, Lee coming out and where one goes
01:19 into the other bit of an actor's life.
01:21 For those people in the world who might not know
01:24 who Lee Miller is, tell us a little bit about her.
01:26 And obviously you're a producer on the project as well.
01:29 How was that kind of side of things?
01:31 - Well, it was really, honestly, it was really me.
01:33 I, it's a fun and interesting story, actually.
01:37 I have some really great friends who live down in Cornwall
01:39 who work in antiques and they called me and they said,
01:42 "Oh, Kate, we know how much you love tables," which I do.
01:45 And I said, "Well, what is it?"
01:46 And it had come from the home of a relative
01:49 of Roland Penrose, who Lee married and became her husband,
01:52 played by Alex Skarsgård in our film.
01:54 The table had been in the center of the kitchen
01:57 where these sort of hedonistic summers of love would happen.
02:00 This was this kind of much talked about, much loved table
02:03 in the lives of these people
02:05 in the beginning of their relationships.
02:07 Anyway, I bought the table and then I thought,
02:10 "Well, Lee Miller, Lee Miller, oh God,
02:11 why has no one made a film about her?"
02:13 So it started with that.
02:14 - What kind of fascinated you so much?
02:16 - So Lee Miller was a woman who,
02:18 after having a short-lived career as a model
02:20 and the muse of Man Ray,
02:21 learned everything underneath him as a photographer.
02:25 Lee finds herself in London and it's the Blitz
02:28 and it was a woman's role to go out
02:31 and contribute to the war effort,
02:33 but being an American, that was very hard for her to do.
02:35 And so she went to the offices of Vogue in London
02:38 and she got herself a job as a photographer
02:40 documenting the Blitz.
02:41 And when the time came, she fought her way to the front line
02:45 and went to war and photographed what was happening,
02:48 the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
02:50 She came from quite a flamboyant, interesting world.
02:53 And so to put herself in a position as a woman
02:56 in a dangerous environment in order to document the truth,
03:01 you know, that for me was the reason I,
03:04 as a person who struggles with injustice myself,
03:08 it was so important that that was the story that we told,
03:11 but also that we dispelled all the myths
03:13 about Lee as the model, the muse,
03:15 and showed her as the cracked, broken,
03:18 you know, tricky middle-aged woman who went to war.
03:22 - Even at Vogue, we're a little bit guilty
03:24 of building that kind of myth of like
03:26 the most beautiful model who then became
03:28 the most serious of 20th century documenters.
03:31 And, you know, that can fit a little bit
03:33 into our own little kind of box.
03:34 - Yeah, I mean, she's never had her real moment
03:37 as the real her.
03:38 She was flawed and she was messy.
03:40 - She takes that pain and she takes it to the front line
03:43 to document the things that no one will say.
03:45 - That's right. - It's extraordinary.
03:47 - Her documentation, for example,
03:49 of the liberation of the concentration camps,
03:51 you know, her images are amongst some
03:53 of the most significant historical images ever taken.
03:55 And people don't really know that.
03:57 - Yeah.
03:57 The scenes are, you know, deeply affecting
04:00 and have echoes of Lee's own work.
04:02 How was it coming to those kind of mornings
04:04 and heading off the set those days?
04:06 - I mean, really just horrendous.
04:07 You know, there were days that were just so horrendous,
04:09 but actually my job specifically
04:12 across the shooting of those scenes
04:14 actually was to look after Andy Samberg.
04:16 So Andy Samberg, who plays David Sherman.
04:18 - Can we talk about the reinvention of Andy Samberg?
04:20 - I know. - Because it's extraordinary.
04:21 - Well, there are people who'll see this film
04:22 and go, "Wow, who's that actor?"
04:23 Here's Andy Samberg playing his first ever serious role.
04:27 And this is a guy who auditioned and auditioned again
04:30 and wanted to go on tape again
04:31 and wanted to be sent research material
04:34 so he could prepare for the auditions.
04:35 And he was absolutely amazing.
04:37 I was the lucky one who got to make that phone call
04:40 and say to him, "We'd love you to play Davey."
04:41 And that was a very emotional moment.
04:43 So Andy is a Jewish man.
04:45 And for him, he was dreading those scenes
04:48 and knowing that I was gonna have to
04:51 just have his back, really.
04:53 It's horrible when you recreate that stuff
04:55 because it looks real, it feels real.
04:58 And, you know, sometimes we forget as actors
05:00 that there are things that we have to do
05:03 where we really are recreating or sometimes creating
05:07 an emotion, a trauma, a moment
05:10 in order to be able to live it and make it real.
05:13 And there were many moments like that.
05:14 Lee goes back to Vogue on her return to London
05:17 because she is upset at the lack of images
05:19 that are printed. - Of course.
05:20 - And there's that scene with Audrey
05:21 and the cutting up of the Dachau negatives.
05:23 And I have to tell you that that actually happened.
05:25 And so I always knew that we would be
05:28 creating a version of that scene
05:30 and making it our own for our story.
05:32 And honestly, Andrea and I, we've both said
05:35 that by far that particular day of filming
05:39 was the hardest day of work
05:43 or creating something as an actor
05:45 that we've ever done, either of us, ever.
05:47 I almost felt a bit sort of possessed.
05:49 You know, I felt a little bit
05:51 as though I had been inhabited by Lee or something.
05:53 It really was quite strange.
05:55 It has been by far the most important preparation
05:59 for any role that I've ever done
06:00 because no one might play her again for a long time.
06:04 And I want what I have been able to contribute
06:07 in terms of bringing her to life
06:09 to be something that is important
06:11 and resonates with people.
06:13 And should other people play her in years to come,
06:16 I would hope to be part of a group of women
06:19 who are telling Lee's story in a way that might last.
06:23 - How did your shoot with Annie go?
06:24 - It was so amazing.
06:26 The first time I was photographed by Annie Leibovitz,
06:28 I can't actually believe I'm gonna say this,
06:30 but I was 21 years old.
06:32 I think we both as women have evolved massively as people.
06:36 And all of that comes into your work.
06:38 She's playful in the way that Lee
06:40 was also very, very playful.
06:42 I mean, that almost defines really who Lee was.
06:45 - Has the process of doing it all taught you
06:46 kind of anything about coping and life?
06:48 - Well, what I did find is that she and I
06:50 are phenomenally similar.
06:52 You know, that sense of no matter what's happened,
06:54 no matter how hard I think I might have it,
06:57 I absolutely do not.
06:59 And I have no right to ever complain.
07:01 And that ability, that remarkable feminine resilience
07:05 to just keep going.
07:06 I wish I'd known her.
07:07 I wish I'd known her.
07:08 We would have been great mates.
07:10 - Listen, Kate, thank you so much for talking to Vogue.
07:11 - Thank you.
07:12 - It's been gorgeous in conversation.
07:14 - Really lovely, thank you.
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