Kate Winslet shifts focus to trailblazing photographer

“Things I find incredibly beautiful are wrinkles around the eyes or the lines on the back of a woman’s hand,” acting icon Kate Winslet says. “It’s very beautiful to see a woman who has aged. I want to know that life story.”

Life stories are on the 48-year-old Brit’s mind these days. Her role in “Lee,” out this weekend, looks like an early Oscar front-runner for best actress.

It’s a biopic of American photographer Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a fashion model who became one of the world’s most acclaimed war correspondents for Vogue magazine during World War II. Miller had a unique way of documenting the world, unyielding in pursuit of the truth about the human cost of war.

Winslet was also a producer on the film, which co-stars Marion Cotillard, Alexander Skarsgård and Andy Samberg.

“The project started for me because I have some friends who work in an auction house who said, ‘There is this incredible table that has come in. Lee Miller would cook and prepare meals at this table,’ ” Winslet says. “I got this antique, put it in my house and immediately fell in love with it. It’s beautiful and you can really feel the history. I sat down many times at that table and thought, ‘My God, why hasn’t anyone made a film about her?’

“Lee found her way to the front line and went to war, camera in hand,” says Winslet, adding that the film took nine years to make. “It was so incredibly hard to make this movie, but so rewarding because this is about a woman who pushed hard and refused to give up. She couldn’t handle injustice of any kind and believed in standing up for other people.

“It’s not a straight up biopic, but something that distills her truth.”

The Oscar and Emmy winner known for films including “Titanic,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “The Holiday” finds her own truth in London with her husband, Edward, and children Mia, Joe and Bear.

Winslet’s good life tips:

‘You should play her’

Winslet says that the first step in playing the famed photographer was meeting with Miller’s son, British photographer Antony Penrose. “He lives only a couple of hours away from me,” she says. “He had his arms open when I met him. He said, ‘I always thought if ever there was a film made about my mother, you should play her.’ … From that moment on, I felt a real sense of duty and responsibility to him and his mother. They had such a complicated relationship. It wasn’t easy for her to be a mother after the war. It wasn’t until much later, until after she had died, that he discovered in the attic some 60,000 negatives and prints his mother did during the war. She never spoke of it.”

Believing in the truth

“I wanted to make a film that lifted Lee out of a quick mention in a book,” Winslet explains. “When people did write about her, she’s often labeled — and labels stick — which doesn’t sit right with me. She’s described as an ex-model. She was in her 20s. It was a sliver of her life, and she didn’t even like being a model. She was flawed and messy and wanted to take photos.”

The movie “covers a decade in her life when Lee became Lee — the visual voice for the victims of conflict. She did this against all odds, which is so extraordinary to me,” Winslet says. “She did this as a middle-aged woman who went to war and documented what happened on the front line for the female readers of Vogue. Women didn’t do this in those days. But she believed in the truth.”

Pulling the levers

There are many reasons why “Lee” took so long to make, Winslet says. “As a woman, it’s often hard to make films about women,” she says. “It’s an indie film, so it took time to find the money and to get the script right.” But Winslet wouldn’t let the project drift into development purgatory. “I couldn’t handle the fact that people might not know her and what she did for history,” she adds. “You need to pull the levers each day and say, ‘Come on. Just one more step.’ ”

Balanced approach

Winslet says that she found a great work-life balance over the years with advice from women she admires. The best tip she ever received came from actress Emma Thompson. “She said, ‘Listen, babe: It’s really important to do good work, but it’s also important not to work,’ ” Winslet shares.

Comfortable and confident

Winslet is known as a red-carpet icon for her fashionable attire at premieres and award shows. These days, though, she says she aims for comfort. “The more relaxed and comfortable I feel, the more confident I am. Confidence is beautiful,” she says. “It’s important to feel comfortable no matter where you are or what is going on. Otherwise you desperately want to go home and put on your pajamas — and you miss the moment.”

‘Your everything’

“Motherhood turns you upside down and inside out,” Winslet says. “It completely transforms your life. Of course, your children are your absolute everything. I have admiration for mothers and fathers everywhere.”

Chill out

How does Winslet de-stress? “I take cold-water dips. If I’m feeling blue, I get in an ice bath,” she shares. She also works on ridding her life of worry. “I don’t want to look back and say, ‘Why did I worry so much?’ ”

Beautiful chaos

“Our home is full of chaos and people and colors and dogs and kids and smells of what is cooking,” Winslet says. “We live by the water and have our chickens. I love my life.”