Everybody knows Andy Samberg as a comedy superstar. But Kate Winslet, Samberg’s costar in Lee, seems to have proclaimed the Emmy-nominated SNL and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star a serious dramatic actor. Winslet, an Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy winner, stars as acclaimed American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller, in the new film. Samberg plays David Scherman, who became one of Miller’s contemporaries at Vogue magazine. The man who shot the famous photograph of Miller in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub in his Munich flat.
Yet another gripping scene in Hitler’s apartment finds Samberg reacting to the unimaginable Nazi terror and Holocaust surrounding him and his colleague. Suddenly, we see Winslet embrace Samberg as he sobs in his costar’s embrace. In a recent interview with MovieWeb, we asked the actor, whose family is Jewish, what was going through his mind when filming that scene.
“Well, as a very serious and dramatic actor, I can’t divulge all of my methods obviously, since that’s what I officially am now, according to Kate.” With more seriousness, he added:
“You try to take on the weight of the moment, right? You try to allow all that sadness and all that horribleness into your soul, and try to represent how absolutely horrible it would be to bear witness to it.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about my own family, my own lineage, and how many were lost.
And all the stories that I’ve been told about it.”
Andy Samberg Proves He’s a Powerful Dramatic Actor
Lee is the gripping directorial debut from award-winning cinematographer Ellen Kuras, whose artistic vision elevated such films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Summer of Sam, The Betrayal, and Neil Young: Heart of Gold. Lee Miller’s ferocious tenacity gave birth to the most powerful images of war in the 20th century.
Andy Samberg, who most recently had audiences in stitches with the films Self Reliance and Palm Springs, delivers a riveting performance as David E. Scherman in Lee, capturing the American photojournalist’s depth and respect for his colleague, Lee Miller. At one point in the drama, the characters of Miller and Scherman are seen arriving at a long line of boxcars filled with dead people.
Written by Liz Hannah, Marion Hume, and John Collee, the cast also features Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Andrea Riseborough (The Regime), Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies, True Blood), and Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, Inception) Winslet and Samberg make for a good pairing in the film, proving that Samberg has become one of the more multi-faceted talents of his generation. Lee hits theaters September 27. Watch the trailer below.