Kate Winslet on challenges + triumphs producing and starring in ‘Lee’

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Kate Winslet attends premiere of HBO Original 'The Regime' at American Museum of Natural History in New York on February 26, 2024 Photo credit: Shutterstock.

Kate Winslet really earned her producer credit on the new film Lee, the true story of pioneering photojournalist Lee Miller. It took her nine years during which she faced many challenges: from scraping the financing together, to having an industry poobah tell her he’d make sure her “little Lee” project got made… if she starred in his movie. 

“I mean, it's just so ridiculous, you almost have to laugh it off,” Winslet says. “But you know, the fact that that person would think that they had that level of power was so terrible. But to wave it in my face, almost smear it in my face like some sort of strange bribe… weird, just weird!”

Miller, the highly accomplished photojournalist, captured images of the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the horrors of Buchenwald and Dachau. Oscar winning actress Winslet discusses her determination to tell Miller’s story, and how Miller’s son Antony Penrose felt she was the ideal person to portray his mother. So much so that he opened the family archive to her. Plus, she shares how she persuaded comedian Andy Samberg to take on his first dramatic role(!).

Credits

Guest:

Host:

Kim Masters

Producer:

Joshua Farnham