October Cover Star Kate Winslet Talks Ice Baths, Antique Tables, and Her New Film

[gentle lofi music plays]

Hello, hello. Welcome!

Thank you!

To an In Conversation with Vogue.

It s a real pleasure to have you here.

Thank you very much.

I don t think I ve ever done one of these before, actually.

I ve been interviewed for Vogue many times in the past

yet I ve never had a sit down

in front of a camera like this,

so it s lovely.

Well, it s lovely to have you!

Having known and watched you for almost my entire life,

I actually feel like

I can t imagine a day in the life of Kate Winslet,

[Kate laughs]

if you felt so bold as to talk me through it.

It usually involves making lists,

shopping lists, [Giles laughing]

and things I need to do.

Our home is full of things and chaos

and color

and dogs

and people,

and there s always food smells.

Absolutely always.

We keep chickens, which I love.

[Giles] Nice!

So there s often, you know,

the gathering of the chicken eggs.

We don t live on a farm.

We live by the sea. [Giles laughs]

We are not isolated at all.

We very much live in a lovely neighborhood community

with great people around us.

There s always water involved,

particularly cold water.

So there s usually a cold water dip that will take place.

I was gonna say very good for the noggin,

the cold water dunking, isn t it?

We are no strangers to ice baths in our house.

Very good!

If ever anyone gets a bit blue or troubled by something,

we re like, okay, get in an ice bath.

Those dopamine levels, they stay up!

Oh! I m telling you. [Giles chuckling]

So there s a lot of that.

But then I suppose there s times

like probably this autumn with, you know,

Lee coming out

and where one goes into the the other bit

of an actor s life.

For those people in the world

who might not know who Lee Miller is,

tell us a little bit about her

and obviously you are a producer on the project as well.

How has that kind of side of things-

Well it was really, honestly, it was really me.

It s a fun and interesting story actually.

I have some really great friends who live down in Cornwall

who work in antiques

and they called me and they said,

oh, Kate, we know how much you love tables.

Which I do and I said, well, what is it?

And it had come from the home of a relative

of Roland Penrose, who Lee married and became her husband

played by Alex Skarsgard in our film.

The table had been in the center of the kitchen

where these sort of hedonistic summers of love would happen.

[Giles] Mm-hmm.

This was this kind of much talked about,

much loved table

in the lives of these people

in the beginning of their relationships.

Anyway, I bought the table

and then I thought,

well, Lee Miller, Lee Miller,

God, why has no one made a film about her?

And it started with that.

[Giles] What kind of fascinated you so much?

[Kate] So Lee Miller was a woman who,

after having a short-lived career as a model

and the muse of Man Ray,

learned everything underneath him as a photographer.

Lee finds herself in London and it s the Blitz

and it was a woman s role

to go out and contribute to the war effort.

[Giles] Mm-hmm.

But being an American, that was very hard for her to do.

Hmm.

And so she went to the offices of Vogue in London

and she got herself a job as a photographer-

[Giles] Mm-hmm.

[Kate] ...documenting the Blitz.

And when the time came,

she fought her way to the front line

and went to war and photographed what was happening:

the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

She came from quite a flamboyant, interesting world.

[Giles] And so to put herself- Yeah.

...in a position as a woman in a dangerous environment

in order to document the truth, you know, that for me

was the reason I...

as a person who struggles with injustice myself,

it was so important that that was the story that we told,

but also that we dispelled all the myths about

Lee as the model, the muse-

[Giles] Mm-hmm.

...and showed her as the cracked, broken, you know, tricky

middle-aged woman who went to war.

Even at Vogue, we re a little bit guilty

of building that kind of myth of like

the most beautiful model who then became

the most serious of 20th century documenters.

And you know, that can fit a little bit

into our own little kind of box-

Yeah, I mean she s never had her real moment

as the real her.

She was flawed and she was messy and-

She takes that pain,

she takes it to the front line to-

[Kate] Yeah.

[Giles] ...document the things that no one will say.

That s right. It s extraordinary.

Her documentation, for example,

of the liberation of the concentration camps are, you know,

her images are amongst some of

the most significant historical images ever taken

and people don t really know that.

[Giles] Yeah.

Those scenes are, you know, deeply affecting

and have echoes of Lee s own work.

How was it coming to those kind of mournings

and heading off the set those days?

I mean, really just horrendous.

[Giles] Yeah.

You know, there were days that were just so horrendous,

but actually my job specifically

across the shooting of those scenes

actually was to look after Andy Samberg.

Mmm.

So Andy Samberg, who plays David Scherman-

Can we talk about the reinvention of Andy Samberg

because it s extraordinary.

[Kate] I know.

Well there are people who will see this film and go,

wow, who s that actor?

Here s Andy Sandberg playing his first ever serious role.

Mm-hmm.

And this is a guy who auditioned

and auditioned again

and wanted to go on tape again

and wanted to be sent research material

so he could prepare for the auditions

and that he was absolutely amazing.

I was the lucky one who got to make that phone call

and say to him, we d love you to play David.

And that was a very emotional moment.

So Andy is a Jewish man and, for him,

he was dreading those scenes and knowing that

I was gonna have to just have his back, really.

It s horrible when you recreate that stuff

because it looks real, it feels real.

And you know, sometimes we forget as actors

that there are things that we have to do

where we really are recreating

or sometimes creating an emotion, a trauma, a moment

in order to be able to live it

and make it real.

And there were many moments like that.

Lee goes back to Vogue on her return to London

because she is upset at the lack of images that are printed.

[Giles] Of course.

[Kate] And there s that scene with Audrey

and the cutting up of the Dachau negatives

and I have to tell you that that actually happened.

So I always knew that we would be

creating a version of that scene

and making it our own for our story.

And honestly Andrea and I,

we ve both said that, by far,

that particular day of filming

was the hardest day of work

or creating something as an actor that we ve ever done,

either of us, ever.

I almost felt a bit sort of possessed, you know?

Hmm.

I felt a little bit as though I had been inhabited by Lee

or something.

It was really was quite strange.

It has been by far

the most important preparation for any role

that I ve ever done

because no one might play her again for a long time

and I want what I have been able to contribute

in terms of bringing her to life

to be something that is important and resonates with people

and should other people play her in years to come,

I would hope to be part of a group of women

who are telling Lee s story in a way that might last.

How did your shoot with Annie go?

[Kate] It was so amazing!

The first time I was photographed by Annie Leibovitz

and I can t actually believe I m gonna say this,

but I was 21 years old.

I think we both as women have evolved massively as people

and all of that comes into your work.

She s playful in the way that

Lee was also very, very playful.

I mean that almost defines really who Lee was.

[Giles] Has the process of doing it all taught you

kind of anything about coping and life?

Well what I did find is that

she and I are phenomenally similar.

[Giles] Yeah?

You know, that sense of no matter what s happened,

no matter, you know, how hard I think I might have it.

I absolutely do not.

And I have no right to ever complain.

And that ability,

that remarkable feminine resilience to just keep going.

I wish I d known her.

I wish I d known her.

We would ve been great mates.

Listen Kate, thank you so much for talking to Vogue.

Thank you! Such a pleasure.

Some gorgeous conversation.

Really lovely. Thank you.

[laid back lofi music plays]