Kate Winslet on starring in the biopic of Vogue war photographer Lee Miller

“She was somebody who lived life at full throttle, and she just believed in being authentic and telling the truth, being her truthful self,” says Winslet, who is portraying Lee Miller in biopic, Lee.

From living and working with surrealist artists in Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s, to living in Cairo and producing such striking photographs that they influenced the artist Magritte, to settling down briefly in London before embarking on a new career as the official war photographer for Vogue magazine, Miller’s life and career was rich, varied, and unarguably significant.

Her wartime work, which Ellen Kuras’ directorial debut predominantly focuses on, included portraits of nurses on the front lines, the first use of napalm at the siege of St Malo, the liberation of Paris, the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, and even a photograph of herself bathing in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub on the day of his suicide.

Capturing the essence of the unwaveringly brave, bold and vital woman that Lee Miller was, was therefore a “long process” for Winslet, who was keen to accurately portray the incredible woman for the big screen.

“I think, through that experience of spending time with (Miller’s son) Tony Penrose and really immersing myself in the archival material, of which there is a lot, I kind of gradually became more and more familiar with who she was and her energy…” says the Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Bafta and Golden Globe-winning Winslet, 48.

“I had access to letters that she’d shared between herself and (British Vogue editor) Audrey Withers. She’d written to (her husband) Roland, he’d written to her when she was away. I mean, I had access to just all of it.

“And, of course, that camera, and understanding the camera and how to use it was one thing, but also understanding what it was that motivated Lee to want to document the images of the voiceless victims of conflict and to reveal their truth – because so much of the truth of what was happening in the Second World War was kept hidden, and she wouldn’t stop until she had revealed those truths, really, to the world but, in particular, to the female readers of Vogue.”

While photographing the Second World War, Miller worked closely with fellow American photographer David E Scherman, who took the photograph of Miller in the bathtub of Hitler’s apartment in Munich, the dust of Dachau on her boots dirtying the bathroom floor.

In Lee, which is out in cinemas now, Scherman is portrayed by Andy Samberg. The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, born in Wallsend and brough tup in Whitley Bay, as British Vogue editor Audrey Withers, and Samuel Barnett, from Whitby in North Yorkshire, also stars as photographer Cecil Beaton.

Lee is out in cinemas now.