Sienna Miller has been a consistent performer ever since her breakthrough roles in Matthew Vaughn’s Layer Cake and Alfie. She impressed critics and audiences with her performances playing real-life people in Factory Girl, The Edge of Love, and The Girl, while also starring in award-winning films such as Foxcatcher and American Sniper.
Like most actors and actresses in the industry in the early 2000s, everyone was doing their best to impress Harvey Weinstein who was the most powerful and influential producer at the time. Getting his approval meant a stable Hollywood career and Miller believed that his constant abuses at her were a form of tough love, which she felt was a badge of honor.
Sienna Miller Felt Inaugurated After Being Shouted At By Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein had a lot of power in Hollywood since the 90s and his company Miramax was the leading company that churned out the most Oscar-winning films (via The Wrap). Thus, every actor and actress wanted to associate themselves with the company, and getting a chance to work with Weinstein was a golden opportunity.
Before all of the news about his s*xual abuse over the years came out, leading to his subsequent conviction in 2020, everyone wanted to please Weinstein. They believed that whatever he said and did was to help them elevate their career in the industry. Early in her career, Sienna Miller was one of the actresses who was vying for Weinstein’s approval.
In an interview with The Guardian, the actress recalled being shouted at by Weinstein one day and being called to his office. According to Miller, Weinstein started ranting at her about being banned from going out and partying. After this horrifying ordeal which left Miller in tears, the disgraced producer tried to reason with her by claiming that all this was because he was incredibly proud of her.
The actress at the time believed that she had received the highest stamp of approval from Hollywood’s biggest producer. She thought that this was the way the industry worked and she felt grateful about the whole thing. Miller said,
Harvey called and asked me to come to his office. I said, I’m in rehearsal. And he shouted, ‘NOW!’ and sent a car. He sat me down in his office and said, ‘You’re not f*cking going out anymore, you’re not partying. And he was standing over me while I was sitting in a chair, lip quivering, and then he slammed the door, and I burst into tears.
And then he came back in and said: ‘It’s because I’m f*cking proud of you’. You weren’t really inaugurated until Weinstein made you cry,’ she noted. ‘I imagined this is what Hollywood producers were like. I genuinely felt he’d given me the biggest validation. I was so grateful.
Miller’s experiences have been shared by many other actresses who have worked for Weinstein. While she may have not been one of his victims, the attitude of up-and-coming stars at the time and Weinstein’s dominance in the industry are clearly shown. Miller was young and naive at the time and thus she had no idea what was going on behind the scenes and only strived to do whatever was needed to build a stable career.
Sienna Miller Gushes About Working With Kevin Costner on Horizon: An American Saga
Sienna Miller is gearing up for the release of her epic four-part Western film series Horizon: An American Saga. The film series directed by Kevin Costner is a passion project that he as working on for about 30 years. In a new interview with Deadline, the actress reflected on how Westerns were a big part of her cinema-watching experiences as a young girl.
Miller stated that Costner’s film Dances With Wolves had a huge influence on her life and ending up working with Costner in his passion project was a dream come true. She claims that she would do anything for him as she truly admires Costner as a person and a filmmaker. The actress said,
I grew up watching Westerns. I think my idea of cinema was a Western when I was a little girl, and then Dances With Wolves was a huge, huge part of my life. So to be in one finally felt like I was on a proper movie set, and to work with him was a dream. I’d really go to the ends of the earth for him, I think he’s phenomenal.
The first film in the series recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it received a 7-minute standing ovation (via Variety). In addition to Costner and Miller, the film also stars Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, and many others.
The first two chapters of Horizon: An American Saga are set to hit theaters on June 28, 2024 and August 16, 2024 respectively.
