Sienna Miller interview

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I'm kind of Factory Girl-ed out, but a chance to speak with Sienna Miller was offered last week and I said sure, shit yeah. I don't care what anybody says about the movie -- Miller's performance as the fluttery but damaged Edie Sedgwick is a hardcore burrow and totally bulls-eye. And it's led her, at age 25, to a key realization: "I'm not good at being 'the girl', I figured out....it's got to be more character-y."

Factory Girl star Sienna Miller in the patio garden at the Chateau Marmont -- Tuesday, 1.9.06, 3:12 pm; ditto; ditto; and ditto once more

Every actress in the world realizes this sooner or later, of course. The fact that Miller woke up to it at age 25 (or 24, presuming it sank in sometime early last year) is the noteworthy thing. A lot of actresses who also happen to be very hot blondes tend to wait until they hit their 30s or sometimes even later to absorb this attitude.

Miller, in any case, has played five character-y parts in five films over the last year and a half. Or at least, parts that seem angular in some way, shape or form, to go by their descriptions.

Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl was first, I think. Then a soap star named Katya being interviewed by a fading political journalist (Steve Buscemi) in Interview, which Buscemi directed. (It will debut on Saturday, 1.20, at the Sundance Film Festival.) A newlywed in Gregory McKenzie's Camille, opposite James Franco. An ethereal sort named Jane Bellwether in Rawson Marshall Thurber's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which costars Jon Foster, Nick Nolte, Peter Sarsgaard and Mena Suvari. And a cameo in Matthew Vaughn's Stardust, a romantic fantasy costarring Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Her next film, she said, is Charles Shyer's Father Knows Less, in which she'll play the daughter of Dustin Hoffman and Diane Keaton. (Shyer told me a few weeks ago that he hates this title and that he'll come up with something better eventually.)

We sat down in the outdoor patio area at the Chateau Marmont yesterday after- noon. It lasted about 30 minutes. Here's the mp3 file. Miller looks great (she was wearing a killer dark-blue Prada dress -- check out the photos) but also strikingly unlike Ms. Sedgwick, which is obviously a tribute to the transformative nature of her craft. She also showed up at last night's party at Drago in Santa Monica for Emilio Estvez and Bobby.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 10, 2007 at 10:01 AM

comment #1

musealien says ...

I really wish I could read these interviews rather than listen to a mp3. I like reading!!!

Posted by musealien at January 10, 2007 12:12 PM

comment #2

gruver1 says ...

Wells to musealien: Transcribe everything and then occupy myself for another two or three hours on top of everything else? Fuck that.

Posted by gruver1 at January 10, 2007 12:29 PM

comment #3

bipedalist says ...

Make it stop, make it stop.

Posted by bipedalist at January 10, 2007 12:35 PM

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

That's one lucky chair.

Posted by Josh Massey at January 10, 2007 12:38 PM

comment #5

OddDuck says ...

These amateurish recordings of Wells' are pretty cool, and offer a very real-seeming picture of his interviewees. I dug the Eric Roth one a couple weeks ago.

I'm listening to the Sienna one right now, and damn she is charming, and comes off as reasonably intelligent (a surprise to me). There's a moment when she takes a sip from Wells' coke (after asking), and it's just a nice reminder of what pretty girls can do.

Posted by OddDuck at January 10, 2007 12:42 PM

comment #6

tholl-yung says ...

She's soooo cute, lucky dog.

Posted by tholl-yung at January 10, 2007 12:51 PM

comment #7

Craig Kennedy says ...

"Transcribe everything and then occupy myself for another two or three hours on top of everything else? Fuck that."

That's how much concern Jeff has for you, O constant reader.

There's a freshness to the raw MP3s I do like since it's a close as I'm going to get to spending 30 minutes with the likes of Sienna Miller. However, I think Jeff and his subjects would both come off looking more interesting with some trimming. Hell, even an edited MP3.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at January 10, 2007 1:01 PM

comment #8

VedaPierce says ...

Speaking of pretty girls with big ambitions, spare a thought for B-movie queen Yvonne De Carlo who died today at the age of 84. No doubt, if she were in her prime today, she would be considered a character actress and Oscar contender too.

Posted by VedaPierce at January 10, 2007 1:06 PM

comment #9

MathewM says ...

She's sexy but I find the constant "car waxing" of other actors and directors to be annoying.

Posted by MathewM at January 10, 2007 1:40 PM

comment #10

musealien says ...

"Wells to musealien: Transcribe everything and then occupy myself for another two or three hours on top of everything else? Fuck that"

Yes, it's called journalism.

Posted by musealien at January 10, 2007 1:50 PM

comment #11

actionman says ...

i am in celebrity-love with her...have been for over a year now

Posted by actionman at January 10, 2007 1:51 PM

comment #12

gruver1 says ...

Wells to musealien: I did the interview, took the pictures, edited the interview, carefully wrote those six graphs, carefully sized and refined the photos, made sure everything was correct, made sure it flowed as a piece, and then put it all up...and it was no walk in the park. It ate up a grand total of five or six hours, minimum, plus some thinking time. The mp3 and the photos gives you the whole Sienna thing as it happened...no filterings, prunings, omissions or reshufflings.

Posted by gruver1 at January 10, 2007 2:57 PM

comment #13

nemo says ...

We need a sound engineer to help Jeff out. Somebody like the Anthony Anderson character from "Hustle & Flow".

Posted by nemo at January 10, 2007 4:11 PM

comment #14

MathewM says ...

It's fine as is. Personally I much rather listen to an interview than read it.

Posted by MathewM at January 10, 2007 4:22 PM

comment #15

Arran says ...

I dig the fact that the audio version is unedited, has umms and ahhs, traffic sounds etc. It makes it sound like a real chat rather than a studio-sanctioned suckfest.

And if you prefer to read, Jeff has given the main points above. The mp3 is just if you want to hear more.

On another note...damn, Sienna is sexy.

Posted by Arran at January 10, 2007 7:59 PM

comment #16

ioncinema.com says ...

Not sure if I'd be waiting in line to see Factory Girl but I'm curious to see how Miller pulled this off...and looking forward to some of her other work.

Transcribing is long and tedious ... and a bit of naturalism is refreshing. Plus this is more of a chit chat than anything else.

For those interested in some of the projex discussed here are some quick links -

Stardust - http://www.ioncinema.com/beta/movie.php?id=3651

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - http://www.ioncinema.com/beta/movie.php?id=5691

Interview - http://www.ioncinema.com/beta/movie.php?id=5183

Camille
http://www.ioncinema.com/beta/movie.php?id=5161

Father Knows Less
http://www.ioncinema.com/beta/movie.php?id=3090

Posted by ioncinema.com at January 10, 2007 9:30 PM

comment #17

Thrudvangar says ...

What a hottie.
Good job Jeff.
Jude must be an idiot. Though I like him as an actor.

Posted by Thrudvangar at January 11, 2007 4:04 AM

comment #18

Craig Kennedy says ...

It never actually occurred to me how much effort had to go into the item just as it is, so for what it's worth (I'm thinking not so much), I apologize for my snarky crack earlier in the thread.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at January 11, 2007 9:35 AM

comment #19