Sienna Miller on her personal and professional growth and confirms men are trash
"I felt very out of control of a lot of decisions for most of my career - and very willing to accept that, which is the saddest part. How grateful I was just to be in the room." https://t.co/7Ka8o0ubUC
- Jessica Goldstein (@jessicagolds) June 26, 2019
Sienna Miller is back working and is promoting upcoming projects "Loudest Voice" and her first lead role in the indie drama "American Woman" and opens up about her career and personal life. I've included excerpts here but the full read is available at source.
Looking back on her famous boyfriends and ex-boyfriends, for being the victim of an infamous paparazzi phone hack (and eventually the winner of a lawsuit), for refusing to extinguish her effervescent personality in public, for smoking.
“I did feel judged by people. Like, ‘Silly little girl, you asked for it,’” she says. “I felt paranoid and scared the entire time. At a certain point, my life was completely unmanageable.”
Would she do another girlfriend or wife role?
I don’t want to be someone’s wife, trying to embellish some role that’s really nothing. I won’t do that anymore. Foxcatcher changed a lot of things for me, though. I had more to do but not quite enough. But I was in an incredible successful and well-loved film. So yes, I’d do that again. I mean, if Paul Thomas Anderson called me and said, “You have one scene and you’re sitting in the background sipping tea,” I’d be like, “Yes.” [Laughs.]
Had she felt dictated by men in a professional sense?
Oh God, yeah. I was a woman in Hollywood! [Laughs.] I felt very out of control of a lot of decisions for most of my career - and very willing to accept that, which is the saddest part. How grateful I was just to be in the room. If I walked into a room with seven men, or actors, I’d feel inferior. And I still struggle with it.
Does it feel like it’s gotten any better?
Definitely. Whatever this moment is, it’s significant for sure. I feel it internally, but it’s a journey to really overcome those feelings, which are really deeply entrenched. I do feel like there’s been an army of women in my industry, and the Time’s Up movement has been huge for a lot of women. I got paid for the first time to act, which was a great feeling.
I got paid, not equal, but close to what the man got. Versus 90 percent less, which is the majority. You’d be shocked at the difference. Of course, I would have done it for free because I fucking love my job, but getting valued, it turns out, is really amazing. So I understand why these men felt really great for a long time. Because I do now! This is a high-class problem; I get paid well. But the disparity is alarming. Now there’s more transparency. I can ask the questions, I can say no. I wouldn’t tolerate anything that was covert or nasty. I’d just tap into the army of vocal women behind every one of us.
You were one of the first actresses to really speak out about paparazzi aggression, privacy, misogyny. Where did the courage to do that come from?
I was living in a place and a time when the paparazzi were very toxic. I couldn’t function in that world. It was impossible to live a life and tolerate that. So I sued them and got this law changed, a harassment law against paparazzi. If I’m in London, where I’m going tonight, I can expect privacy. Rupert Murdoch hacked my phone, and I could have settled out of court and made that private, but I didn’t, because it was wrong. When pushed, I will fight back.
Did the way men would write about her frustrate her at the time?
At the time, no. In hindsight, it bothers me. But it’s another thing you just accept. It’s the way things were.
The worst was the New York Times. I was doing my Broadway debut, and they did a profile on me and referred to my ex-fiancé [Jude Law] as a “fling.” A week later [the Times] did a profile on Jude, who also had a play on Broadway, and said he “had a three-year relationship and engagement with the actress Sienna Miller.” The latent sexism … the message is so clear. What they’re trying to say is that this person is frivolous and a slut, and this person I’d been engaged to and had an intense relationship with [isn’t]. It’s just disgusting. It made me angry. I got an apology that was a centimeter long. In a publication I value as one of the most noble in the world, it was so hurtful and crushing. It’s out there; no apology will take it away. And it listed people I’d never slept with in the opening. It makes you go totally weak. It takes any power you have.
I was dreadful in the play, and I blame them. Not my fault! [Laughs.] When you’re doing something that’s a lot of work and the greatest publication in the world is calling you something, it’s hard to change a narrative.
Source