Sienna Miller covers the latest issue of Elle UK. She’s promoting Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal, based on Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name. She plays the wife of a British MP (played by Rupert Friend) and the MP is accused of raping a colleague. Sienna talks about her own “scandals,” somewhat selectively in this piece. Let me just say, I have sympathy for Sienna and I can’t imagine what it was like for her as the British tabloids were ripping her to shreds for years and spying on her and invading her privacy. She sued and she won, but she’s still bruised by all of it. That being said, her selective amnesia on her full-blown affair with a married man (Balthazar Getty) is something pretty notable. I would imagine Rosetta Getty has some thoughts about Sienna championing herself as a wronged woman. Some highlights from this Elle piece:
Her character in Anatomy of a Scandal: ‘It was familiar terrain, because I’ve experienced some of the things that she experienced. And the feelings were familiar. [But] her way of dealing with what’s thrown at her is the absolute antithesis of what my way is. And so, in a kind of twisted, tourism sense, I just wanted to see how it would feel to react differently. I know that sounds weird, because you’d think it would be deeply unpleasant to sit in that space.’
Her chaotic 20s: ‘It feels like somebody else’s existence. I can go and visit it and look at it, but it doesn’t feel like my life. I can’t quite believe that it all happened. And not to put it specifically on that one thing, but just the chaos of the entire decade is so far removed from my life now.’
Falling for Jude Law & becoming famous overnight: ‘I was just catapulted into a totally parallel universe while being in love [with Law]. There was a lot of magic at that time. At first, it was kind of comical, but very quickly it became insidious and, yeah, scary. And my boyfriend [at the time] had been experiencing it for years and felt, understandably, a lot of hostility towards that kind of attention. So my initial reaction was the same.’
Why she sued British tabloids: ‘I became so litigious, just to try and carve out an existence that I could manage. You’ve seen women implode as a result of that. You can’t hold onto sanity or grounding.’ And so, in 2008, Miller sued the worst-offending paparazzi agency for harassment and won an injunction against future breaches of her privacy. That same year, she sued (and reached an out-of-court settlement with) The Sun and the News of the World, also for invasion of privacy. She then settled with the Sunday tabloid in 2011 for damages related to phone hacking and testified – defiantly, honestly – about the impact on her life and relationships at the Leveson Inquiry later that same year.
She’s always been underestimated: ‘I don’t know what more I have to do. I feel like, from a young age, I’ve proven myself. Without sounding arrogant, because I’m riddled with insecurity and the lowest self-esteem – and that’s the truth, I’m not just saying it – but I think I’ve reached a point of nihilism, which I’m quite happy about. I don’t know whether that’s [because of] Covid, but I just don’t really care. I do just wish that people would be a bit more original in their thoughts.’
Turning 40: She had ‘pressure… [about] kids, and should I have more, and why haven’t I, and all of that, which is a really loud noise. Biology is incredibly cruel on women in that decade – that’s the headline, or it certainly was for me. Then I got to 40 and I froze some eggs. Having been really focused on the need to have another baby, I’m just like, if it happens, it happens. That kind of existential threat has dissipated.’
Taking on Rupert Murdoch’s media machine: ‘Making that decision to take on Murdoch[’s company] and succeeding… It was a really difficult choice to make,’ she says of her long road to something approaching justice. And the legal battles, though hard, were key to Miller starting to regain control over her life. ‘Once you start to challenge it legally, and have minor victories, it does feel like, to some degree, you’re reclaiming a narrative or part of yourself that was taken. And that becomes empowering. That feels good. It’s something I survived. It feels like the stakes were high at moments and so I’m proud of that. And I would love to not revisit it, but it’s a huge part of my life and story.’
Again, I love that she fought the British media system and won, but I completely understand why even her victory feels bittersweet. News of the World was hacking into her phone regularly, they were accessing her medical records, they invaded every safe space she thought she had. It was chaotic and damaging and there’s no financial settlement which can make it better. As for playing “the wronged woman”… she did experience that when Jude cheated on her. Then she was the other woman a few years later.
Cover & IG courtesy of Elle UK.
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