It’s been 30 years since Kate Winslet had her first leading role, in Peter Jackson’s HEAVENLY CREATURES. That was the beginning of an extraordinary on-screen career in which she soon established herself as one of the most successful and versatile actresses of our time. Her films range from blockbusters like TITANIC to arthouse hits like ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, from period dramas (SENSE & SENSIBILITY) to adaptations of bestsellers (THE READER), from comedies such as THE HOLIDAY to science fiction à la AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER and TV series like, most recently, THE REGIME. It’s no wonder that the Oscar-winner will be presented the CineMerit Award at the Munich International Film Festival.

You’re not just the lead actress but also the producer of your latest film, LEE, which will have its European premiere in Munich. It’s the story of Lee Miller, an American woman who started out as a model for Vogue and muse for Man Ray before becoming a photographer who went to the front lines toward the end of World War II. The perfect biography for a screen adaptation?

Lee Miller’s life really was so extraordinary that the biggest challenge for us in putting this film together was to decide which part of her life to really focus on. That’s why it took several years for this project to become reality. Even in the 30 years after our story ends, she continued to live a rich life, becoming a mother, getting into Le Cordon Bleu and reinventing herself as a culinary genius. One could have easily turned her life into a 12-part TV series. But I really wanted to make a film about her.

How did you and the screenwriters decide what to focus on?

We knew early on that we wanted to tell a story about Lee that had never really been told before. She had always been defined by the men in her life. Going back to her experiences as a model and — as you put it — a muse, she was always perceived by the male gaze. I had absolutely no interest in that. Instead, I wanted to show who this very, very important woman really was, because there were many people who seemed to have heard the name Lee Miller but had no idea that some of the most significant images around the end of World War II were taken by her — from photographs of the siege of Saint-Malo to those of the horrors in the recently liberated concentration camps in Buchenwald and Dachau.

How would you describe the woman you portray in LEE?

The way I saw Lee and got to know her through working closely with her son, Antony Penrose Lee, she was very powerful, forthright, and incredibly brave, without being fearless. On the contrary: she did carry a lot of fear, actually. But she had the ability to overcome it in order to document and reveal the truth. Furthermore, she was compassionate and loving, ambitious and determined — all of the things that I always hoped to be myself.

Do you remember how you came up with the idea to make a film about Lee Miller?

LEE actually began with a table. In 2015, a friend of mine who works for an auction house and knows that I love old tables called me about a beautiful piece of furniture that was about to go on sale. She had done all the research and knew that this table had belonged to Roland Penrose. People like Man Ray or Max Ernst had eaten at this table. I bought it, and as soon as I touched it, I could feel that it has extraordinary energy. So then I started to think of Penrose’s wife, Lee Miller. I realized that while I know of her and how she looked, I didn’t really know much about her. And the more I learned, the less I understood why no one had made a film about her.

This is the first feature film that Ellen Kuras has directed. Why did you choose her to be the director?

I felt very strongly that this needed a female director who had a remarkable visual eye, because that was exactly who Lee was. I’ve known Ellen for a long time. She’d been the cinematographer on ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and later A LITTLE CHAOS. LEE might be her feature directorial debut, but she’s got phenomenal experience with extraordinary directors and actors. Her worldliness and the fact that we had worked together extensively before made her the ideal choice as director.

Despite all of this, it wasn’t an easy road to turn this project into reality. Is it true that at one point you had to pay the cast and crew out of your own pocket for two weeks?

That’s correct. But that’s not unusual for an independent production. Sometimes the money is coming in late and hasn’t landed in an account on time for salaries to be paid. We were lucky that the money never stopped completely, but I have been on independent films in the past as an actor where that has happened. You really have to hold your nerves when setting up small projects like this. Just because I was in TITANIC, it doesn’t mean that I’m a stranger to the hurdles and challenges of filmmaking. But in the case of LEE, all those smaller and bigger difficulties made us stick together even more as a team. We always knew that we would carry through with optimism, good humour, and grace, no matter what.