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By Christina Radish
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Sienna Miller at the 18th International Palm Springs Film Festival Awards Gala held at the Convention Center in Palm Springs, Calif. on January 6, 2007. | Previously better known for what she is wearing and who she is dating than her acting ability, that’s all about to change for Sienna Miller. In the Weinstein Company film Factory Girl, the 25-year-old Brit has transformed herself into Edie Sedgwick -- the mid-60s socialite who became a quintessential icon of American pop culture. Sedgwick appeared to be an American princess, with her blue-blood family and her family money, not to mention her beauty, talent and charisma. But, when she met up with counter-culture anti-hero Andy Warhol (played by Guy Pearce), everything changed. Suddenly, the aristocratic waif found herself at the center of a revolutionary artistic universe bursting with sex, drugs, style and rock ‘n’ roll. Then, almost as quickly as she burst onto the scene, Sedgwick’s flame was extinguished, when she died at age 28 from a drug overdose.
A superstar of epic proportions, it was clear that Edie Sedgwick would require an equally intriguing actress to capture both her quintessential style and her heartbreaking descent. In Factory Girl, Sedgwick’s incendiary presence comes to life through Miller’s powerful performance. Miller not only had an uncanny physical resemblance to the rail-thin mod with the pretty saucer eyes, and a similar reputation as an international trendsetter, she was also emerging as one of today’s most talented young screen actresses.
{quote_top}“I researched the role for about a year,” Miller tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “I read every book there was to read, and watched all of the films I could get my hands on. Guy Pearce and I went down to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and they let us into an archive room where they had movies that people haven’t seen, so we watched them. The thing about that era was that it was so well documented. Everyone recorded everyone doing everything. There are just normal conversations between Edie and Andy, that he taped, that I had a CD of, to get her voice and her speech patterns. And, I watched the way she danced, and I talked to her husband, brother and friends. I went to Santa Barbara and saw her grave. I felt like this underground detective, but I wanted to get to the stage where I was so familiar with her speech that I didn’t have to think about it anymore. I didn’t want to be an imitation, so in order to emotionally connect to the material, I had to do my homework enough that I felt comfortable with all the physicality, and could just let go of it on the set and try to relate to the character, as much as possible.”
Understanding what drove Sedgwick, and what caused her to behave as crazy as she often did, was something that was of utmost importance to Miller. “The most important thing for me was to psychologically try to understand why she was the way she was. From an exterior point of view, you see this girl who came from a very privileged background and had an education, and then went to New York and took too many drugs and died. People often say to me, ‘Who cares?’ But, once you start delving into it, you understand why she was freaking out so much. She had a really tortured background and upbringing. She was in and out of mental institutions, and had shock treatment at age 14. She was very disturbed. For most of her life, reality was quite a scary place. She was very layered, and I wanted to understand the vulnerability behind her. She looked so confident, aloof and beautiful, but underneath all of that, she was really fragile. That was something I wanted to portray.”
Miller reveals that her working relationship with Pearce became much like Sedgwick’s close relationship with Warhol, in the beginning. “We had a couple of nights where we’d put on the make-up and run around the hotel room, being them. And, when I got back to London, Guy would call me, every now and then, going, ‘Edie, it’s Andy,’ and we’d have conversations like them just because it was so much fun. Guy also filmed everything because Andy used to film everything, so he has hours and days of footage of all of us, on the set. We really adored each other. We got on really well, which was great. But, on the days where the relationship wasn’t so good, we wouldn’t really talk. At the end of the day, we’d be like, ‘I’m sorry. I love you.’”
{quote_middle}Although Miller admits that she is more of a fan of the work of other artists, she loves what Warhol’s work represents. “I think he was an absolute genius. He was so ahead of his time. With the way that he made his movies, putting the microphone in and making it real, with real people having real conversations, it was like the precursor to our current obsession with reality TV. This man was just so forward thinking. And, I think the mockery of America, with the Campbell soup cans, is really interesting. I really appreciate what he was doing. I wouldn’t mind having a Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe in my house.”
Now that Miller is starting to gain more attention for her work than her personal life, she can reflect on the whirlwind that she’s been living in for the last couple of years. “The work is really what’s always important to me. I did five films last year, so there wasn’t much time to focus on anything other than work. I feel like I’m more conscious of what I’m good at and what I’m not so good at, character wise, and I feel like I had the opportunity to play some really interesting characters last year. I try not to pay too much attention to all the other stuff. The only time it’s really evident is when the paparazzi are in your face. But, I don’t read. I don’t go on blogs. I’m blissfully unaware, and I try to keep it that way.”
Since completing Factory Girl, Miller has four more films, including the star-studded big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, the fantasy adventure that is set in a countryside town bordering on a magical land, in which a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. Starring such notables as Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter O’Toole, Ian McKellan, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais and Claire Danes, the project re-teamed the actress with her Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn.
{quote_bottom}“Matthew just phoned me up, out of the blue, and said, ‘There’s this little part in my new film. Will you come do it?’ I wasn’t working, so I said, ‘Sure.’ I only worked on it for two weeks, and I play this horrible girl. She’s not quite that bad, but she’s the catalyst for why Charlie Cox’s character decides to fulfill his promise of obtaining a shooting star.”
Naturally, being a fashion icon herself, Miller now has her own fashion line with her sister, called 2812. “My sister got her first degree in design from Central Saint Martins, which is a school where Alexander McQueen went. She’s a genius and a brilliant designer. And, doing what I do makes it easier to get backing and funding. She’s really involved. I just phone up and say, ‘I want a pair of jeans like this,’ and she’ll draw them. She’s really the brains behind everything. But, it’s fun. It’s like playing dress-up with my sister.” |
