{"id":54917,"date":"2022-04-19T11:16:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T01:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=212551"},"modified":"2022-04-19T19:36:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T19:36:16","slug":"sienna-miller-anatomy-of-a-scandal","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/sienna-miller-anatomy-of-a-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sienna Miller\u2019s Relationship with Jude Law Informed Her Character in ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jude Law and Sienna Miller during “Alfie” London Premiere for the Make a Wish Foundation – Arrivals at Empire, Leicester Square in London, Great Britain. (Photo by Fred Duval\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Critics can say what they like about Sienna Miller<\/a>\u2019s new TV series Anatomy Of A Scandal<\/em> \u2013 a six-episode, part-psychological thriller, part-courtroom drama about sexual consent \u2013 but I still think you\u2019d really like it.<\/p>\n

Based on the political page-turner of the same name by British writer and journalist Sarah Vaughan, Miller plays Sophie Whitehouse, the well-dressed wife to politician James (Homeland\u2019<\/em>s Rupert Friend). Her life falls to pieces when her husband is accused of raping his parliamentary assistant Olivia (Charlie\u2019s Angels\u2019<\/em> Naomi Scott) whom he\u2019d indulged in a five-month affair with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it over?\u201d a forlorn-looking Sophie asks James as he stands in the doorway of the couple\u2019s palatial bedroom mere hours before news of the affair is set to break in the press. \u201cAt the party conference. Where else?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt work mostly,\u201d James meekly replies. \u201cUsually late at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat, on desks? In the broom cupboard? On the right honourable leather sofa?\u201d Sophie asks. \u201cDid people at work know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were careful,\u201d James responds.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sienna
Credit: Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sienna
Credit: Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Miller is brilliant \u2013 gosh, how I\u2019ve missed her, Edie Sedgwick in\u00a0Factory Girl<\/em> stands rent-free in my mind \u2013 Sophie\u2019s initial dealings with the news (read: calm and supportive) are the opposite of how any one of us might think we\u2019d react should we discover our partner cheating.<\/p>\n

I remember trying to describe the heartbreak I experienced when I was cheated on by a boyfriend some years back. He \u201csmoked my heart like one of his cigarettes\u201d was the way I spelt out the pit of pain; an aching, gaping hole \u2013 a mark of the heart \u2013 permanently singed at its edges.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t calm at all when that blow came, and it sounds as though Miller wasn\u2019t either when her fianc\u00e9 and Alfie<\/em> co-star Jude Law was caught cheating with his children\u2019s nanny Daisy Wright in 2005. (To add salt to the wound, the latter sold her story to the Sunday Mirror<\/a><\/em> where she recounted the \u201cmind-blowing\u201d sex she had with Law.) According to friends, Miller was reportedly \u201cincandescent with rage.” She was just 23 at the time.<\/p>\n

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LONDON – OCTOBER 14:\u00a0 Jude Law and Sienna Miller arrive at the World Premiere of “Alfie” at the Empire Leicester Square on October 14, 2004 in London. (Photo by Dave Benett\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a recent interview, Miller talked about how she drew on this past experience and how it helped inform the character of Sophie in Anatomy Of A Scandal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was familiar terrain, because I’ve experienced some of the things that she experienced. And the feelings were familiar,\u201d Miller told\u00a0ELLE\u00a0<\/em>UK<\/strong><\/a>. \u201c[Sophie\u2019s] 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this same interview, Miller also spoke about how playing Sophie helped her yield power over the traumatic memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that sounds weird, because you\u2019d think it would be deeply unpleasant to sit in that space,\u201d Miller says. \u201cThere is something cathartic, I suppose, about spending time in an ugly space that\u2019s familiar. And maybe reclaiming it? I don\u2019t know what the psychology of it is. But there is something where maybe you can substitute a memory with something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sienna
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Jude Law and Sienna Miller take their seats to watch Roger Federer of Switzerland play Lleyton Hewitt of Australia before their quarter-final round match at the 118th Wimbledon Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London 30 June, 2004. AFP PHOTO\/NICOLAS ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miller opened up in a 2020 interview saying that there’s\u00a0\u201cproof that no matter how all-consuming it feels at the time, a broken heart does heal.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole six weeks of that experience that I don\u2019t remember,\u201d Miller told the Daily Beast<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI have no recollection of it,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople who came to see me said we had dinner, and I don\u2019t remember. I was in so much shock over it all. And I\u2019d really just begun. I was only 23. But if you get through that, you feel like you can get through anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law and Miller did try dating again in 2009 but it ended, for good this time. The actress now has a 9-year-old daughter named Marlowe whom she welcomed into the world in 2012 with now ex-boyfriend Tom Sturridge.<\/p>\n

Today, she looks back on her relationship with Law with fondness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just catapulted into a totally parallel universe while being in love [with Jude],” Miller told ELLE UK<\/em>, of the paparazzi attention that ensued when she and Law hooked up. \u201cThere was a lot of magic at that time. At first, it was kind of comical, but very quickly it became insidious and, yeah, scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NEW YORK – MAY 03: Jude Law and Sienna Miller attend the Costume Institute Gala Benefit to celebrate the opening of the “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 3, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For anybody reading this story who is going through this unique sort of hell, know this: Heartbreak doesn\u2019t discriminate, even if you\u2019re Sienna Miller. But piece by piece, you will put yourself back together and you\u2019ll be a stronger, wiser and happier woman because of it. When a life seems be falling apart, it\u2019s usually falling together.<\/p>\n

Anatomy Of A Scandal<\/em> Is streaming now on Netflix.<\/span><\/p>\n