How Kate Winslet saw Lee Miller’s world through a Rolleiflex camera

Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet is known for taking on roles portraying tough and complex women. And her latest film is no exception. 

“Lee” is the real-life story of Lee Miller, a former model who battled her way to the frontlines of World War II as a photojournalist for Vogue magazine. 

Winslet was so effective in her performance that Miller’s son, Antony Penrose, was convinced Winslet was his late mother when he saw the film.

“I had this total… cognitive dissonance because I thought she was real,” he told 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega. 

“It was so like her. And I thought, ‘How’d they do that? She’s been dead for years. It’s a movie.'”

Winslet used a replica of a Rolleiflex camera to take actual photos while she was acting in the film, recreating some of Lee Miller’s iconic images. 

“It couldn’t just be a prop… I had to be confident and comfortable with it. And in order to do that, I had to know what I was doing,” Winslet told Vega in an interview. 

Winslet said she learned to use her “body as a tripod,” holding her breath before taking a photo, to keep the camera still and avoid ruining the shot. 

60 Minutes asked why that level of detail was so important to Winslet. 

“Anyone who’s worked with a Rolleiflex camera might watch that film. And they would know if I’m [breathing] that’s not a photograph that is ever going to work,” she said. 

“It was my job to be as authentically like Lee as I could. So, there’s just no way I wouldn’t consider doing those things.”

Winslet and Vega looked at one of Miller’s first World War II photographs together: two models sitting outside of an air-raid shelter in north London, wearing fire masks for protection from incendiary bombs. 

“Having that surrealist eye that she had, and a phenomenal eye for fashion, she saw those as, like, ‘Oh my God…. cool glasses,'” Winslet said. 

Winslet showed Vega her recreation of the image. Vega asked if she thought of Miller’s photo when she took the picture. 

“Completely,” Winslet said. “Authenticity was very important, matching the same angle where she had stood…getting the height right.” 

Winslet didn’t stop at learning Miller’s approach to photography: she attended exhibitions, read manuscripts, and pored over books of her work.

“It was just this immersive quality that allowed her, I think, to manifest the personality of Lee… and it was a wonderful, wonderful portrayal,” Penrose told Vega. 

Winslet also told 60 Minutes she has no plans to change careers and leave acting behind. 

“It isn’t about what people think or the opinions of others. It’s about the work,” Winslet said. “I love acting… it gives me so much.”

The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.

Photos courtesy of Lee Miller Archives, England 2024