Sienna Miller hasn't had the easiest go of things on her recent press tour for G.I. Joe, confessing candidly to substandard work and swatting away at least one aggressive media detractor. So when it came time to chat with an interviewer from the Guardian -- one who wasted no time characterizing Miller's new film as "insultingly inane, cynically commercial, and almost unwatchably awful" -- which Miller showed up? Perhaps surprisingly, none of the above, but just a regular working actress reflecting on life after the big studio check has cleared.
First there's her admission that the more sophisticated Guardian readership wouldn't likely give much of a damn about Stephen Sommer's massive toy-adaptation tentpole. Then there's the confession that Joe isn't the type of movie she'd even see if she weren't in it. Batting an ugly 0-for-2 for the Paramount team, she next slaps a run-scoring single into left field, cheerfully extolling the joys of making an action blockbuster (e.g. "something new, learning how to use guns, being on big sets. It's really fun to be in a film that's pure entertainment, that people want to go and see"). All of which lead up to the bigger question of Miller's consistency in the media batter's box:
Critics complain that she plays the publicity game perfectly well when it suits her, then cries foul when it doesn't. For example, she sued two tabloids for publishing paparazzi pictures of her naked on the set of Hippie Hippie Shake, her next forthcoming film, yet only months earlier she had told the Guardian, "I want to see London naked. Why not? People get really funny about nudity, and I think it's a beautiful thing."
"Yeah," she says when I read her the quote, "that's fine, but you don't want to get naked on the cover of a newspaper. I... I... I'm all for nudity, whenever anyone wants to, but I don't see why I should be put on the cover of-- " She breaks off, looking embarrassed. "Oh I don't know, I'm getting myself into trouble again, because I've been naked several times..." She tails off weakly into silence.
Then she glances up at me, looking stung, and says in a tone that sounds both defeated and defiant: "I'm basically a mass of contradictions. I've said things and meant them, but I'm obviously a very confused person who has no idea how they feel about things."
I don't think you really think that for a minute, I say. I think you're just a bit annoyed by the question, and worried about looking like a hypocrite. She laughs. "I know, I just worry because I know I say a lot, often. I've been so careless and loose lipped. Whatever I say, I get myself into trouble. And you know, it doesn't bother me -- but my mother reads it, and just goes, please! It's more about the people that get affected around me."
Seriously. How can the studio cannily exploit Channing Tatum's recent nuptials this week when Miller continues to insist on shooting from the hip? So selfish.
ยท Sienna Miller: 'Whatever I say, I get myself into trouble' [Guardian]