Her leading role in Factory Girl, which charts the tragic life of Andy Warhol protege Edie Sedgwick, sees Sienna Miller take a significant step forward in her acting career. She talks to Michael Dwyer.
The history of show business is littered with casualties, many of them vulnerable, brittle women, from Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, who have been in rehab while in their early 20s.
"When it happens at such a young age, it's an awful lot of pressure and it can be so far outside of anyone's control," Sienna Miller observed when we talked in London during the week.
"It's even more so now with the internet. One person says something and within two minutes it's global. It's an extraordinary power, but it can be handled irresponsibly. These are people's lives that people are writing about. The trick is not to read it, but at a certain age, it's like a car crash. You've got to look at it. It's a hard thing for these girls, knowing that these things are not in their hands."
Miller plays the lead in Factory Girl, which charts the short, ultimately tragic life of Edie Sedgwick, who came from a very wealthy family, fell in with Andy Warhol's Factory set, appeared in his experimental movies, became addicted to drugs and died in 1971 at the age of 28.
"It was tough, but I was drawn to the challenge," says Miller. "Playing a role that has an arc like that, there was so much to do as Edie changed in so many ways. It was intimidating, and emotionally draining at times." Immersing herself in the role with admirable commitment, Miller takes a significant step forward in her acting career.
"As I was preparing for the film, I was surprised at how well documented that era is. Andy carried a tape recorder around with him everywhere and he would record conversations. I've got this CD with nine conversations between Andy and Edie. That really gave me insights into them, and into how Edie spoke. It was invaluable for me in terms of getting her voice."
She found it fascinating to meet some of the few survivors of that hedonistic Factory era, notably Gerard Malanga and Brigid Berlin. "Gerard is a friend of mine now. He has an incredible presence. I had read a lot about him, and how he emanated this incredible sexuality. He still has that magnetism. And Brigid Berlin is also a friend now.
"Did you know that she recorded every phone call that she ever had from around 1968 to 1977? I've actually heard the conversation where she phoned Andy and told him that Edie had died. He asked her how, and who was with her. Brigid said Edie's husband found her. Then there was this 15-second pause and Andy asked Brigid who's getting all the money."
GUY PEARCE DISAPPEARS inside the blotched skin of Warhol in the movie. "Guy is brilliant," Miller says. "When we were shooting and there was any time I felt I wasn't really connecting with the character, all I had to do was look at Guy in the corner and I saw Warhol. We've been hit hard because of the way Warhol is portrayed in the film. I don't think he was evil, but he was a manipulator and I think he was socially insecure. His father was a coal miner and Andy wanted to penetrate this impenetrable social structure at a time when it was dominated by blue bloods. He just clung to these people in society."
Factory Girl went through several cuts before it was rushed into release before Christmas to qualify for Oscar consideration. "It's hard to make a film about someone like Edie," says Miller. "She was from a very rich family and she was a drug addict in the end, and so much happened in between. It's hard to make people sympathise with that.
"I think the producers wanted to make her as sympathetic and vulnerable as possible, so there were changes along the way. But that happens on any film. It was a rush, though. There are a few scenes that were taken out and I think about what I gave to those scenes, but at the end of the day I think it worked."
In the movie, Sedgwick is drawn to a musician played by Hayden Christensen and clearly based on Bob Dylan, who is said to have taken umbrage at his portrayal. "I think Dylan is a genius," says Miller. "All the stuff about him taking lawsuits against the film was hyperbolised in the press. There was no lawsuit. There were rumours that the musician character came across as someone who was responsible for Edie's death, which isn't the case at all."
And then there were internet reports claiming that the sex scene between Miller and Christensen was played for real. She laughs aloud at this. "That was the most ridiculous rumour. You look at the scene and it's clear that it's nothing like the sex scene in Don't Look Now, for example. But people made a meal out of that as well. It sells papers - and ultimately, movie tickets, I suppose."
ONE OF THE most frequently used sound effects in Factory Girl is that of flashbulbs popping every time Sedgwick and the Warhol entourage go out on the town in New York. It's a familiar experience for Miller, who was hounded by photographers when she was involved with Jude Law.
"I've had a bit too much paparazzi interest for my liking," she says. "I used to lash out and now I try to keep a dignified silence. I don't pose for them. I just keep my head down and take a deep breath. It's not easy, that side of it. It just happened that way, but hopefully, the more work I do, that will die down."
She was surprised that it happened when she and Law went to Cork last summer for a long weekend at Ballymaloe House. "There I was in the papers," she laughs, "walking down the street and having an ice cream and a packet of crisps. It's bizarre. The strange thing was how they knew. But I loved Ballymaloe. We ate a ton of food, and we had some lovely long walks."
Miller was born in the US, and her family moved to England when she was 18 months old. "I've got dual citizenship - which is very handy for work, but bad for tax - but I've always regarded myself as English." After a few roles in TV series and in the movies Layer Cake and Casanova, she made her London stage debut in June 2005, playing Celia in the Young Vic production of As You Like It.
This became a baptism of fire when Helen McCrory, who was playing the female lead, Rosalind, fell ill on the third night. In the show business tradition that the show must go on, Miller, who had not been understudying McCrory, had to step into her role at very short notice.
"That was the scariest moment of my life," she recalls. "I found out about 6.40 that evening that Helen was ill, just over an hour before the curtain went up. It was just the third night, so it could have really screwed up the show. I knew Helen's part because I had been rehearsing with her, and we had had two weeks of previews. I don't remember much of that night now. It was so scary that I was in absolute shock for a few weeks afterwards. Thankfully, it was just the one night."
Miller was almost born in a Broadway theatre, while her mother attended a performance of The Nutcracker. "My mother went into labour during the show. I was two weeks premature. Her water broke in the theatre, and being my mum, she didn't leave. Nothing would get her out of a theatre. So I think it's fitting that I do what I do."
I mention that I, too, arrived into the world earlier than scheduled, shortly after my parents were watching a movie in a Tralee cinema. It transpires Miller and I have something else in common - she has two dogs named Porgy and Bess, while I have two cats named Fred and Ginger. "Do you want to get married now?" she laughs. "Porgy and Bess are actually from Tipperary. They travel quite a bit and they have their passports. They came to New Orleans with me for three months when Jude was shooting All the King's Men there. We had a great time there." So she liked New Orleans more than Shittsburgh?
"Oh, stop it," she says, feigning shock that I would raise the wordplay she used for the city where she made The Mysteries of Pittsburgh last autumn. "I actually loved Pittsburgh with a P. I'm learning that some humour doesn't really translate into print. I've got foot-in-mouth disease. People can like the honesty of what I say, or they can really take advantage of it. It's hard for me to pretend to be anything other than what I am. Why should I play the role of being a demure young actress when that's not what I am? I have my opinions, and then sometimes I say something I think is funny and I get ostracised for it. I had to meet the mayor of Pittsburgh live on TV and apologise for it. I feel the focus of the media is not always in the right place, to make that headline news when so many people are dying in Iraq."
BASED ON MICHAEL Chabon's novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh also features Peter Sarsgaard, Jon Foster and Nick Nolte, and it's one of four movies she has completed for release later this year. She has a cameo role in Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn's fantasy film Stardust - "I love the idea of Robert De Niro playing a cross-dressing pirate in it," she says - and Camille is "a romantic satirical thing" in which she plays "this sweet, innocent girl from Kentucky - I keep on playing Americans. I've only done two films where I've not been American." She plays a US soap star in The Interview, a remake of the Dutch film made by Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in Amsterdam in 2004. Steve Buscemi directed the new version and co-stars as the political journalist assigned to interview her character.
"It's a very cool piece of cinema, and it's been getting very good reviews," she says proudly. "Steve called me and said he had this film and asked if I would read the screenplay. I said I didn't need to read it, that I'd do it.
"We shot the whole film in just nine nights in New York. It's mostly just the two of us. I play this actress nobody takes seriously and he plays a journalist who would much prefer to be in Washington when he is sent to interview this piece of fluff, but she turns out to be more canny than he thought."
Factory Girl is now on release