Sienna Miller is drawing from her past trauma for her upcoming role.
Ahead of her role in a brand new Netflix show, Anatomy of a Scandal — the star is using her pain from when her then-partner Jude Law cheated on her in the 2000s to bring the show’s character to life.
In the adaptation of Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name, Sienna plays the role of Sophie Whitehouse. Sophie is the wife of a politician who is shattered after she discovers that her husband has been accused of raping a colleague with whom he’d had an affair.
Speaking about the role during a brand-new interview with Elle UK, Miller reflected on how playing a wife who’s been cheated on brought up “ugly” emotions from her past.
“It was familiar terrain, because I’ve experienced some of the things that she experienced. And the feelings were familiar,” Miller began, before comparing her character’s journey to her own lived experience.
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“[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.”
Miller went on to reveal how exploring the character gave her an outlet to reclaim the humiliation of Jude’s betrayal.
“I know that sounds weird, because you’d think it would be deeply unpleasant to sit in that space,” Sienna said.
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“There is something cathartic, I suppose, about spending time in an ugly space that’s familiar. And maybe reclaiming it? I don’t know what the psychology of it is. But there is something where maybe you can substitute a memory with something else.”
However, despite the painful memories, the actress still looks back at her time with Jude with love in her eyes — recalling the “magic” of their early relationship.
“I was just catapulted into a totally parallel universe while being in love [with Jude],” Miller said of her transition into fame.
“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.”
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