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  • ‘Lee’ Exclusive Interview: Kate Winslet

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    Opening in theaters on September 27th is the new biopic ‘Lee’, which chronicles the life of celebrated WWII photojournalist Lee Miller.

    Directed by cinematographer Ellen Kuras (‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’), the film stars Academy Award winner Kate Winslet (‘Titanic’, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’) as Miller, as well as Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard (‘The Dark Knight Rises’), Oscar-nominee Andrea Riseborough (‘To Leslie’), Andy Samberg (‘Palm Springs’), Josh O’Connor (‘Challengers’), and Alexander Skarsgård (‘The Northman’).

    Kate Winslet stars in 'Lee'.
    Kate Winslet stars in ‘Lee’.

    Related Article: Director James Cameron and Kate Winslet Talk ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

    Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kate Winslet about her work on ‘Lee’, her passion to get the movie made and tell this story, as well as Miller’s incredible determination and what Winslet admires most about her.

    You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Winslet, Andy Samberg and Andrea Riseborough.

    Kate Winslet 'Lee'. Photo: Roadside Attractions & Vertical.
    Kate Winslet ‘Lee’. Photo: Roadside Attractions & Vertical.

    Moviefone: To begin with, as both an actress and a producer, why you were so passionate about this project and why did you want to get Lee’s story told?

    Kate Winslet: I started developing the film in 2015, and I knew who Lee Miller was, I was familiar with her photography. But I did not know what she had gone through and how unbelievably determined she was to get permission to go to the front line and to document the war and the atrocities of the Nazi regime for female readers of British Vogue. I could see very clearly that history was in danger of pigeonholing her and defining her through the male gaze. She was described as the former muse and ex-lover of Man Ray, and she was an ex-cover girl, all this former stuff, like the interesting bits of her life had been and gone. But these kind of infantilizing descriptions of who she was, which really bothered me because Lee was a woman who lived many lives within her life, even beyond the war. But for me, this decade of history that we depict in our film was really when Lee became Lee. This was a flawed, middle-aged woman who had the compassion and determination to go and reveal the truth. She wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer. She never took her foot off the gas, and I just had to become like that in trying to get the film made, and in playing her. It has been just an extraordinary privilege to have played this character, honestly.

    (L to R) Andy Samberg and Kate Winslet in 'Lee'. Photo: Kimberley French.
    (L to R) Andy Samberg and Kate Winslet in ‘Lee’. Photo: Kimberley French.

    MF: Finally, you mentioned Lee’s incredible determination, where do you think that came from and is that what you admired most about her?

    KW: I mean, yes, it was one of many things that I admired about her, but in general, how Lee Miller walked through the world. I think she was born determined, and she carried herself with incredible grace and compassion. She was redefining femininity 80 years ago to mean resilience, strength, courage and power, all those things that we now as women are doing and we’re raising our daughters that way, and that’s how we are in our friendships. That was Lee. She was already doing that, so (she was an) incredibly contemporary person of her time. But Lee had suffered the most extraordinary, unimaginable trauma as a child, and she was told to never speak of it, and she didn’t. She never told anyone. Consequently, she had a very powerful streak of injustice in her, and that meant whether it was, consciously or subconsciously, that she carried that injustice into her work and had a way of seeing the world that was different. She could see evil. She could see people in a way that meant her photography was unique. She was able to look down into that Rolleiflex camera at her image, but look up and meet people’s gaze head on, and she was unafraid of doing that. That is what sets her work apart, and that is what war correspondents do. They take risks and they put themselves in terrifying situations, but they do it because they want to reveal the truth, and they want to make sure that nothing is hidden. Lee did that for the female readers of British Vogue at a time when not many other women were doing that at all.

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    What is the plot of ‘Lee’?

    Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) goes from a career as a model to enlisting as a photographer to chronicle the events of World War II for Vogue magazine.

    Who is in the cast of ‘Lee’?

    • Kate Winslet as Lee Miller
    • Marion Cotillard as Solange d’Ayen
    • Andrea Riseborough as Audrey Withers
    • Andy Samberg as David Scherman
    • Noémie Merlant as Nusch Éluard
    • Josh O’Connor as Antony Penrose
    • Alexander Skarsgård as Roland Penrose
    (L to R) Noemie Merlant, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, and Alexander Skarsgard in 'Lee'. Photo: Kimberley French.
    (L to R) Noemie Merlant, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, and Alexander Skarsgard in ‘Lee’. Photo: Kimberley French.

    Kate Winslet Movies and TV Shows:

    Buy Tickets: ‘Lee’ Movie Showtimes

    Buy Kate Winslet Movies On Amazon

     

  • ‘Here After’ Exclusive Interview: Connie Britton

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    Opening in select theaters and on digital September 13th is the new thriller ‘Here After’, which was directed by Robert Salerno (‘Smile’) and stars Connie Britton (‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Friday Night Lights’), Freya Hannan-Mills (‘The Cuckoo’), and Giovanni Cirfiera (‘Ford v Ferrari’).

    Related Article: John Boyega and Nicole Beharie Talk True Story ‘Breaking’

    Connie Britton in 'Here After'. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    Connie Britton in ‘Here After’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Connie Britton about her work on ‘Here After’, her first reaction to the screenplay, her character’s guilt, her relationship with her daughter, working with actress Freya Hannan-Mills, the tone of the movie, and collaborating with director Robert Salerno on set, as well as teasing her other upcoming movie, the true story ‘Winner’, which also opens in theaters on September 13th.

    You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Britton and director Robert Salerno.

    Connie Britton in 'Here After'. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    Connie Britton in ‘Here After’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to be part of this project?

    Connie Britton: Well, I’ve joked about this before because of course, doing ‘American Horror Story’ all those years ago, I’ve always been afraid of horror movies. That’s not been my go-to genre, but I was really moved by this story when I read it, and it really took me by surprise, and it tapped into some very maternal feelings that I experience in my life and in kind of this supernatural way. But for me, whenever I read a script, I always really look for something that taps into my own humanity because I feel like if I’m experiencing that now in this way, my hope is that then I can help an audience tap into that thing too. So, that’s what it felt like when I first read the script. I just kind of felt really moved and the experience of what it feels like to be a mother and the unknown, but in a way that I hadn’t quite seen before.

    MF: Can you talk about the guilt that Claire is dealing with and what she’s willing to do to protect her daughter?

    CB: Well, I mom guilt is a thing. It’s real. Parent guilt is real. We’re not going to just restrict it to moms. I’ve done enough therapy to know that guilt is never productive, so it’s kind of is something that plagues us. So, for me, it was interesting to explore how she’s guilty because there was a consequence to something that was a result of her own emotional pain. There was a deeply emotionally painful consequence to that. So, I really was trying to explore my own guilt and what it would feel like if that was ratcheted up to here and heightened to a point where I couldn’t see the world in any other way other than through the filter of that guilt. It was interesting. As an actor, I always want to try to learn something from the roles that I play and learn something about myself. Sometimes you must look at things that you don’t really want to look at all the time every day. Guilt is certainly one of them. So, it was a challenging exploration, but also a beneficial one. I think it helped me understand the places where I feel guilty and where it’s not beneficial for me. Again, I hope that for audiences who watch it too.

    (L to R) Freya Hannan-Mills and Connie Britton in 'Here After'. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    (L to R) Freya Hannan-Mills and Connie Britton in ‘Here After’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    MF: Can you talk about Claire’s relationship with Robin and what it was like working with actress Freya Hannan-Mills?

    CB: Well, Freya is so wonderful and just a wonderful human being and a wonderful actress and amazing, transformative in this part. She made it easy, and instinctively she’s somebody that you want to be maternal toward, but we talked a lot about her relationship with her mother, and she’s just a gentle soul. So, it felt very much, like I could just get right into that feeling of I love this being. So yeah, it was wonderful to work with her.

    MF: Can you talk about the film’s tone, and as an actress, is that something you are concerned with, or do you just leave that up to the director?

    CB: Tone is really one of the most important things always because tone is such a pivotal part of telling the story. So, because if you tell a story with a more humorous tone, it’s going to come across completely differently than if you tell a story with a more surreal or moody tone. So yeah, as we were making the movie, I was constantly trying to understand what my role was between grounding the movie, but also understanding that there was this supernatural element to it and trying to find the balance between worlds. But I always want to try to ground any character that I play as much as I can, because I think that that allows our audience then to open into whatever worlds we’re creating even more effectively because the audience feels grounded as well. But that’s always a balancing act, and just to find out how, you’re firmly on the ground and then how far you can fly.

    (L to R) Giovanni Cirfiera, Alessandro Bressanello and Connie Britton in 'Here After'. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    (L to R) Giovanni Cirfiera, Alessandro Bressanello and Connie Britton in ‘Here After’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    MF: What was it like collaborating with veteran producer Robert Salerno on his first feature film as a director?

    CB: It’s always exciting working with someone who is directing the original vision from the script. It’s exciting because, and we talked about it a lot, he really had invested so much of himself into the vision of this story. Then it’s exciting to see that unfold. In Bob’s case, he is a veteran producer, but also, he was directing a movie for the first time in Italy. We had these incredible Italian crews that I just adored so much. But it was interesting watching the challenges that came up for him around that, and being a first-time director, and it just felt like we kind of were all in these beautiful Roman trenches together, really learning how to do this in that beautiful landscape with the wonderful crews that we got to work with.

    Director Susanna Fogel's 'Winner'. Photo: Vertical.
    Director Susanna Fogel’s ‘Winner’. Photo: Vertical.

    MF: Finally, in addition to ‘Here After’, you also have the film ‘Winner’ opening on the same day. What can you tell us about that movie and the character you play?

    CB: Well, I mean, that is an incredible story. I don’t know if you know the story of Reality Winner or not, but it’s a true story about a young woman named Reality Winner who during the 2016, when Trump was elected, basically she was working for the NSA, and she discovered that the Russians had interfered with our elections. So, because she felt like people needed to know this, she anonymously sent her discovery to a to a media site, and she was arrested by the FBI. She went through a terrible prison ordeal and is still enduring a lot of the repercussions of that. Anyway, it’s an amazing story of this very young woman. I play her mother who helped try to give her a voice because she was given one of the worst sentences, we’ve ever given to someone who’s basically been accused of being a traitor to the country. So, it’s an interesting philosophical story, and hers is a story of courage. You learn a lot about it, but Susanna Fogel (‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’), the director tells it almost as a black comedy, which speaking of tone, it’s kind of a harrowing story, but seen through the lens of black comedy, it makes it more accessible and relatable as well.

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    What is the plot of ‘Here After’?

    Claire Hiller (Connie Britton) is overjoyed when her daughter Robin (Freya Hannan-Mills) is miraculously revived after a fatal accident. But her relief turns to dread as Claire notices changes in her daughter, suspecting something dark has followed her back from the brink of death.

    Who is in the cast of ‘Here After’?

    • Connie Britton as Claire
    • Freya Hannan-Mills as Robin
    • Giovanni Cirfiera as Luca
    • Tommaso Basili as Dr. Ben Romano
    (L to R) Giovanni Cirfiera and Connie Britton in 'Here After'. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    (L to R) Giovanni Cirfiera and Connie Britton in ‘Here After’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    Other Connie Britton Movies and TV Shows:

    Buy Tickets: ‘Here After’ Movie Showtimes

    Buy Connie Britton Movies On Amazon