The Big Picture
- Collider’s Steve Weintraub speaks with cinematographer and director Ellen Kuras on her feature directorial debut,
Lee
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Lee
stars Kate Winslet and an ensemble cast to tell the true story of WWII photojournalist Lee Miller. - During this interview, Kuras discusses carefully curating every element, the choice of casting Samberg, and working with Winslet.
As a cinematographer, Ellen Kuras has been the visual voice for Mary Harron, Spike Lee, and Jonathan Demme, among so many others. She was also Michel Gondry’s DP of choice, serving on many productions including the seminal Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MInd. It was here her professional relationship with Kate Winslet began. Now, 20 years later, Winslet is starring in and producing Kuras’ feature film debut, Lee.
Lee tells the amazing story of photojournalist Lee Miller, played from the heart (and lovingly produced) by Winslet. Lee explores the decade in Miller’s life, changing her forever from fashion model and artist’s muse to an accomplished, storied war correspondent through the Second World War.
During this interview, Kuras sat down with Collider’s Steve Weintraub to discuss how Lee was edited, making sure every single element of the film had purpose and motivation and why it was brilliant to cast the guy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine in an extremely serious role. You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.
Ellen Kuras Brings All the Creative Voices Together as Director of ‘Lee’
COLLIDER: I just want to say congratulations on the movie. I really can’t believe this is your first feature after being a DP for so long.
ELLEN KURAS: I’ve been directing for quite a long time. For the past ten years, I have had experience on set as a director. I was part of the first season of Ozark and George Clooney asked me to do Catch-22. It was great to be able to be on the set, which was a lot of women, which was great. Also, to be able to shape it from the beginning to the end, that I think is really important. We are able to take the vision of the film and shape it with the production design, the wardrobe, sound, and everything in post. Oftentimes, if you’re just a cinematographer, you only have one voice in the film, but as a director, it’s really great to bring all the voices together, to be able to orchestrate what the film is gonna be. Kate was a really important partner in that because she was a producer. She was the person who thought of doing this project and who came to me to ask if I would direct it.
Ellen Kuras on Casting Andy Samberg in His First Serious Role
Whose idea was it to cast the guy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Pop Star to play David?
KURAS: It’s amazing because we talked extensively about who could be David E. Scherman. David Scherman, her sidekick, who goes off to war, who has a sense of humor, and who’s cheeky at times, but who could also be seriously affected by what was in front of him and what he saw in the war. We talked a lot about who that could be, and it was Marion Hume, who is one of the writers on the film who said, out of the box, “What about Andy Samberg?” All of us were like, “Andy Sandberg. Wow, what a great idea.” Which was very unusual, Andy Sandberg allowed us to audition him. He offered to do an audition, which is really unusual for an A-list actor. To say, “Oh no, I’ll be auditioned,” it was profoundly moving.
Kate and I were on the call, and we were both like, “Oh my god.” It was Kate who said to him, “The only thing I’m gonna say is stop doing that with your face. Don’t worry. Let it come from here,” which is the thing that Andy did as a comedian. A lot of what happens is on your face. But Andy, to his great credit, and to his great range as an actor and as a person, allowed everything to come from his heart. You really feel it. Andy carries a lot of the emotional part of the story. Towards the end when they’re in war, it was greatly affecting. Every time I see that scene with Andy, I’m affected by it. When we were shooting it on set, I had tears running down my face with my headphones on. It was a real brilliant tour de force and I have to give Andy a lot of credit for his brilliant performance.
I’m a huge fan of his, just to be clear.
‘Lee’ Editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen Understands Story and Metaphor
I’m fascinated by the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. What was it like after you did your first friends and family screening or test screening? How did the film possibly get impacted?
KURAS: We were really fortunate to have Mikkel E.G. Nielsen come on board as our editor. I had come across Mikkel’s work — he was not very well known. He had done a couple of films. He had been working in the commercial world, then working as a feature editor, but he wasn’t really well known to the world. I happened to come across something that he did, a rough cut, and made it the movie. I said to Kate, “There’s this editor who I think is really quite talented. He’s got something. He understands story and metaphor.” She said, “Well, let’s interview him”. So I interviewed him, and I knew that he would be a great person for this. We ended an hour-long conversation about the film and about Lee Miller.
When we got into the editing room, the thing about Mikkel is that he was very sensitive to her story already. He and I talked about how to put it together. You always have an editor’s cut, and then we reshaped that. It was very interesting because we knew that there were certain scenes we were gonna have to lose, because we didn’t want to make the film longer than two hours. Two hours and ten minutes, we felt like it’s too long. We really wanted to keep it down. So it was about being able to choose those essential moments with Lee that would enable us to understand her relationships with Audrey Withers, with David E. Scherman. It’s basically distilling down as much as we can, what the story is gonna be, as well as what are the sound effects? I’m a believer that every single element is there for meaning, it’s just not arbitrary. The sound effects and how they work also bear upon what the film is. In the very beginning of the film, we open up with Lee running through the battlefield. We wanted the sound of the battle to be backgrounded so that we hear her heartbeat. It establishes right at the beginning that, “Here we are, we’re in the film.” The point of view of this film is that we’re with her. We hear her breathing, we hear her heartbeat, and that’s what carries us through.
Lee Miller’s Son Wouldn’t Let Others Make Biopics of His Mother
Her story is so incredible. I’m just wondering, and I’m just presenting this, but do you think if she had been a man, this story would have been told sooner? Do you think there’s that element to it or not at all?
KURAS: It’s really hard to say whether this story would have been told sooner if she was a man. I think that people have tried to tell the story sooner. Anthony Penrose, who’s Lee Miller’s son, would talk about that, about how many people would come to him and ask for the rights to her story. I think the reason why he rejected them was because he knew they weren’t getting the essence of his mother. Oftentimes they wanted to just see her as someone who was crushed by the war and a broken woman instead of seeing what really created her as a person, what the cost of that war was, the cost of trying to get the truth out. But if she was a man, whether it would have been told earlier, I’m not really sure. It’s hard to say because how people tell stories is as important as the story itself.
You’re 100% right. I’m just gonna say you did great work with this, and I’m so happy you guys made the film.
KURAS: Thank you so much, really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time.
Lee is currently playing in theaters.