First Look At Kate Winslet As Photographer Lee Miller

Sky and the producers of Lee released the first official image of Kate Winslet as Lee Miller.

The image, shot during filming in Croatia, shows Winslet as the pioneering American war correspondent and photographer who covered WWII in Europe for British Vogue. Filming is currently underway on the directorial debut of acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras.

The film is not a biopic, but it will explore the most significant decade of Lee Miller’s life. As a middle-aged woman, she refused to be known as a model and male artist’s muse. Lee Miller defied the expectations and rules of the time and traveled to Europe to report from the frontline. There, in part as a reaction to her well-hidden trauma, she used her Rolleiflex camera to give a voice to the voiceless. What Lee captured on film in Dachau and throughout Europe was shocking and horrific.

Her photographs of the war, its victims, and its consequences remain among the most significant and historically important of the second world war. She changed war photography forever, but Lee paid an enormous personal price for what she witnessed and the stories she fought to tell.

Kate Winslet says, “To me, she was a life force to be reckoned with, so much more than an object of attention from famous men with whom she is associated. This photographer, writer, and the reporter did everything she did with love, lust, and courage and is an inspiration of what you can achieve and what you can bear if you dare to take life firmly by the hands and live it at full throttle.”

Julia Stuart says, “Sky is honored to bring Lee Miller’s wartime journey to screens across the UK. Lee Miller was an utterly unstoppable woman whose timeless story is as relevant now as it was in her day, and there is no one better suited to that role than the masterful Kate Winslet.”

Joining Winslet is US actor Andy Samberg playing Life Magazine photographer David E. Scherman; Alexander Skarsgård playing English Surrealist painter, photographer, poet, and biographer Roland Penrose; Marion Cotillard plays Solange D’Ayen, the fashion director of French Vogue and close friend of Miller’s. Josh O’Connor plays Tony, a young journalist, and Andrea Riseborough plays British Vogue Editor Audrey Withers.

Additional cast members include Noemie Merlant (Tar, The Portrait of a Lady on Fire) playing Nusch Eluard; Arinzé Kene (Been So Long, Misty) playing Major Jonesy; Vincent Colombe (Revenge) playing Paul Eluard, Patrick Mille (Bad Girl) playing Jean D’Ayen; Samuel Barnett (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) playing Cecil Beaton and Zita Hanrot (Paul Sanchez Is Back!) playing Ady Fidelin.

The multi-award-winning creative team includes the Director of Photography, Pawel Edelman (The Pianist, Ray), Production Designer Gemma Jackson (Aladdin, The Gentlemen), Costume Designer Michael O’Connor (Jane Eyre, The Duchess), Hair and Make-up Designer, Ivana Primorac (Darkest Hour, The Crown,) and Music composed and conducted by two-time Academy Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel).

“Lee” was penned by Liz Hannah, Lem Dobbs, John Collee, and Marion Hume and is based on “The Lives of Lee Miller” by Antony Penrose, who serves as a consultant to the production.

Produced by Kate Solomon and Kate Winslet, with Troy Lum, Andrew Mason, Marie Savare, and Lauren Hantz. Executive Producers are Julia Stuart and Laura Grange, Finola Dwyer, Thorsten Schumacher, Billy Mulligan, John Hantz, Jason Duan, Crystine Zhang, Lem Dobbs, Liz Hannah, John Collee, and Clare Hardwick.