Here are some photos of Sienna Miller out in NYC a few days ago to promote American Sniper. Her outfit is Altuzarra (a bodysuit fashioned as a crisp blouse and a wrap skirt) and looks timeless. Sienna’s been hustling hard for this project. I admire her gusto as a supporting player. She’s simply thrilled to be working in movies that people want to watch. In a new interview with Variety, Sienna talks about how motherhood made her realize that she doesn’t always need to be the center of attention. This is part of her relatable motherly persona, and I think it’s working some slow magic. She’s had media training — which is smart — so as not to disrupt her slew of upcoming roles (including Ben Affleck’s Life by Night) by saying something rude or vacant. She almost succeeds here:

Clint Eastwood’s directing style: “He does it his own way. But for me, I found him to be really attentive. I felt very directed throughout this whole film. He’s literally sitting by the camera and he’s looking at you, and he doesn’t take his eye off you. I remember before an emotional scene, he came up and put his hand on my back and he just whispered in my ear the death toll in Iraq on the day we’re shooting. It was an amazing piece of direction, because it grounds you.”

Motherhood changed her: “I feel like my life is in two chapters. There’s the pre-baby and post-baby. I love my job so much, but I didn’t think very laterally about the implications of working with filmmakers. After having my daughter and re-evaluating my priorities, I realized I really want to work with amazing filmmakers and had a strong sense of the films I want to watch and try to be in. And also, letting go of any attachment to the size of the role. I genuinely don’t need to be the lead. I don’t need to carry something.”

On her needed hiatus: “Yes, I did. I’d been, not by choice, dissected by the media and exposed and all the things that really make it hard to be a good actor, or to be seen as characters, to disappear into something. And I always had strong and pure intentions. But it was just being swallowed up by this tabloid animal.”

There are different standards for men & women in Hollywood … “And in the whole world.”

On the pressures against 20-something actresses: “It’s completely sexist. It’s completely imbalanced. It’s insane. I had an experience with the New York Times, where my ex-boyfriend Jude was doing a play on Broadway. They did a profile on him, and during the article referred to the fact that he had a relationship with me. The following week, the same newspaper did an article on me and referred to Jude as ‘a fling.’ As if I was promiscuous, and all the connotations that come with that word. That’s sexism in the upper echelon of journalism. Don’t get me started. Even Channing [Tatum] says with his past of being a dancer, if that was a woman, it would be really hard to come back from that. Dancer? I mean, stripper!”

Her Cabaret role: “It’s Birdman‘s fault. I’ve got the sudden urge to be back in the theater.”

On G.I. Joe: “Ergh! It was an odd movie for me to be in.”

[From Variety]

Hmm. I do buy that Sienna is a changed person. She’s less selfish and less of a train wreck than she once was. She makes some strong points about how women are treated differently than men, not only in Hollywood but “in the whole world.” Yep.

Anyway. Sienna’s tabloid run was brutal. Jude Law was (is?) a scoundrel when it came to romance, but Sienna was viewed as the promiscuous one. Jude cheated on her (with the nanny), and everyone knew it, but Sienna was treated like she did something wrong. Of course … she cheated on Jude too (with Daniel Craig!), but we only found out about that last year. Even in hindsight, she was treated worse than Jude by the media. Even with the whole Balthazar Getty mess, Sienna received the brunt of that scandal too.

But. For Sienna to declare, “I always had strong and pure intentions“? Guuurrrl.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN