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The Treatment

Kate Winslet's Candid and Expansive Chat with Elvis

·53 min·5 clips
A mouse ran over Lee Miller's foot, leading to the solarization technique Man Ray took credit for.
The episode features an interview between host Elvis Mitchell and actress-producer Kate Winslet, focusing on her film Lee about photojournalist Lee Miller. Winslet explains that the film is based on Anthony Penrose's book, which details his posthumous discovery of Miller's war photography and his complex relationship with her. She highlights Miller's accidental invention of solarization, a technique credited to Man Ray, and Miller's role among surrealist women in 1920s Paris. Winslet describes Miller's trauma from childhood sexual abuse and how it fueled her determination and impatience, particularly in facing gender barriers. The discussion covers Miller's work for British Vogue during WWII, her PTSD, and her act of hacking into unpublished Dachau negatives. Winslet reflects on the physicality of playing Miller, including using a Rolleiflex camera and embodying her restlessness. Mitchell draws parallels to Winslet's roles in Mare of Easttown and The Reader, noting themes of women bearing witness and pushing through injustice. Winslet shares anecdotes of facing sexism from potential investors and other directors while making the film. She emphasizes Miller's modernity in redefining femininity as resilience and power. The interview concludes with Winslet's thoughts on family dynamics, as seen in Miller's relationship with her son, and her commitment to storytelling that makes people feel seen.

As heard by us

Kate Winslet and Elvis Mitchell trace Lee Miller through war, shame, memory, and family silence.

Kate Winslet's conversation with Elvis Mitchell finds its shape in the silences around Lee Miller's life. It begins with Anthony Penrose's book and the son who struggled to understand a mother whose wartime work remained hidden from him until after her death.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want Kate Winslet on Lee Miller, wartime photographs, shame, and the cost of bearing witness.

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