Sienna Miller on Her New Film “American Woman”

SIENNA MILLER, ACTRESS: You know, as a script, it was one of the most vivid and clear thing. It was a very easy decision. I read it and I instantly had a complete vision of how to play this part. And I love the idea of taking something on that felt this epic. I love the idea that she begins as one woman and really, to her own resilience and perseverance, ends as someone else. It just felt dense and meaty and funny and sad. It sort of had every ingredient that you could ever want. So, it felt like a real challenge and beautifully written.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, tell me, expand a little bit on that sort of transformation of the character. She starts as one woman and ends as somebody else.

MILLER: You know, she begins — she had a child at 16. So, the movie opens, she’s 32 and she has a 16-year-old daughter who has a 2-year-old son, as you said. So, it’s a messy situation, there’s no one around to help, she’s done her best but she’s really in her 30s, living the adolescence that she didn’t have a chance to live because she was raising a daughter. So, she’s very childish. The relationship between her and her daughter is much more kind of sibling and she’s frivolous and a little bit reckless and maybe hard to love. She’s frantic. And then this tragedy happens, her daughter goes missing and she’s kind of catapulted into responsibility and tragedy and parenthood of this grandson, and she takes it on. But it’s just — it’s a rough life. And she, as many women do, rises to the occasion and really triumphs. So, she kind of emerges at the end as the woman that she had the potential of always being but hadn’t quite managed to get there in spite of all this tragedy.

AMANPOUR: So, let’s see this clip because it almost is the sort of the tipping point for the transformation.

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MILLER: It’s been — it’s been three days since we last saw Bridget. She left home around 7:00. She was wearing a pink sweatshirt and white sneakers. She had her hair colored a few days ago, so it’s a little lighter now, little more blonde but not much. This is a mother’s worst nightmare. To know that your daughter’s out there somewhere and she’s calling for you and you can’t get to her. I’m sorry. I miss my daughter.

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AMANPOUR: I mean, it’s very, very raw and it looks to me like you’re also not overly made up, if made up at all. You’re really baring everything there.

MILLER: Yes. Yes. I mean, in the beginning, she’s quite made up but then after that happens, I think, yes, the last thing she’s thinking about is how she looks.