Kate Winslet's eight-year fight to make war reporter biopic Lee

It's always exciting to see a new Kate Winslet movie in cinemas. This week, she's fronting the biopic Lee, in which she plays the prominent US photojournalist Lee Miller. Miller was a former model who famously provided unflinching depictions of the Second World War while working for Vogue.

Winslet has been involved in this particular project for a very long time, with the first idea coming from director Ellen Kuras, who worked with Winslet when she was the cinematographer on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Kuras saw a book about Miller and noticed the resemblance between her and Winslet.

The film was officially announced in 2015 and, since then, the star has been doggedly fighting to get the story to the big screen. It was her decision to bring Kuras in to direct — her first time at the helm of a feature film.

Winslet has been a part of the project since the very start and, in a recent Vogue piece, she was described as a "deeply hands-on producer, responsible for everything from finances to script to casting to camera angles" as well as her role in front of the camera. This is every inch Winslet's movie and the journey to the screen has been anything but easy.

The original script came from John Collee and Marion Hume based on the biography The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose — Miller's son. Penrose supported the production and gave Kuras full access to all of his mother's diaries and archive material. Screenwriter Liz Hannah, who received a Golden Globe nomination for journalism drama The Post, was brought in later.

Read more: Kate Winslet Had 1 Stipulation When It Came To Her New Film Lee (HuffPost)

Winslet was instrumental throughout this process, hand-picking the screenwriters and working with fellow producer Kate Solomon to hammer the film into shape. She explained to Vogue that she had some "unbelievably outraging" interactions with men in the industry when she was trying to secure funding.

She said: “I’ve even had a director say to me: ‘Listen, you do my film and I’ll get your little Lee funded.’ Little! Or we’d have potential male investors saying things like: 'Tell me, why am I supposed to like this woman?'"

But the movie started to rev into life at the tail end of 2021, with Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, and Josh O'Connor joining the cast along with Jude Law, who would later be replaced by Alexander Skarsgård. Cotillard joined when Winslet wrote to her personally regarding the role of French journalist Solange d'Ayen.

Read more: Kate Winslet shares Andy Samberg's 'sweet' reaction to landing first drama role (Yahoo Entertainment)

Winslet's determined pursuit of financing didn't stop the process being as precarious as it often is for independent films. At one stage, Winslet paid two weeks' worth of wages for the entire cast and crew out of her own pocket. By September 2022, the movie was ready to go in front of cameras.

Then, disaster struck. On the first day of shooting, Winslet slipped during a rehearsal and badly injured her back. “I had three massive haematomas on my spine, huge,” Winslet told Vogue. “I could barely stand up.” Determined not to delay the film at such a crucial stage, she performed through the excruciating pain.

Just under a year after that painful day on set, Lee premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023. Winslet's eight-year journey to get her passion project to the screen had paid off, with the reviews praising her dedication and commitment to the role. Variety wrote that she delivered a "fantastic interpretation of a woman unconcerned with upholding the status quo".

Read more: Kate Winslet says photographer Lee Miller ‘faced so many challenges’ (PA Media)

It has taken another year for Lee to make it into cinemas, but the film has now arrived in multiplexes and will eventually make its way to Sky's streaming offering. The whole thing is a testament to Winslet's determination behind the scenes, bringing all of us a story she needed to tell.

Lee is in UK cinemas from 13 September.