Sienna Rose Diane Miller (born 28 December 1981 in New York City, New York) is a British-American actress and model.
Her career began in the 2000s, with supporting roles in various British comedies, and the short lived police series Keen Eddie. Notable roles in Layer Cake and Alfie brought her to prominence, along with her well-publicised relationship with Jude Law. She quickly became tabloid fodder and earned a reputation as a Ms. Fanservice wild child, especially when the relationship ended with infidelity on his part and her next was with married actor Balthazar Getty. This scandalous public image tended to eclipse her screen work, despite getting good critical reviews; her roles in Stardust (as an Alpha Bitch pitting two men against each other) and in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (as The Baroness) were almost Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
She ended up taking a break for a couple of years to get away from the tabloids' obsession, honing her craft on the London stage and Broadway. In The New '10s, she of course returned to the big screen, now enjoying newer freedom to play more varied parts - including getting to play Tippi Hedren in HBO's The Girl. In the middle of the decade, based on her roles in Foxcatcher and American Sniper, it became something of an internet joke that playing Sienna Miller's husband in a biopic was a death sentence.
As usual, The Other Wiki has more details.
Filmography:
- Layer Cake (2004)
- Alfie (2004)
- Casanova (2005)
- Factory Girl (2006)
- Stardust (2007)
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
- Foxcatcher (2014)
- American Sniper (2014)
- High-Rise (2015)
- Burnt (2015)
- Live by Night (2016)
- The Lost City of Z (2017)
- The Catcher Was a Spy (2018)
- 21 Bridges (2019)
- The Loudest Voice (2019)
- Horizon: An American Saga (2024)
Tropes associated with her work:
- Actor-Inspired Element: A scene in Factory Girl where Edie tells The Musician about her brothers' deaths was completely improvised by Sienna - based off what she knew about Edie's life.
- Approval of God:
- Tippi Hedren gave Sienna her approval, and said The Girl was very accurate. They even became good friends during pre-production.
- Taya Kyle did likewise for American Sniper. She initially wanted Sandra Bullock and worried Sienna would be "too British", but changed her mind after meeting her.
- Awesome, Dear Boy:
- She took the role of The Baroness in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra because, after having to do so many gritty dramas...
"I felt like it was time to do something where I wasn't having a breakdown or addicted to heroin or dying at the end, something that was just maybe really great fun and that people went to see and actually just had a great time seeing and weren't left damaged."- She did the comedy Downsizing precisely because she rarely gets to do comedies, and the script made her laugh "a lot".
- Biopic: She's actually done quite a few:
- Factory Girl - as Edie Sedgwcik, an 'It Girl' from the 60s and 70s associated with Andy Warhol.
- The Girl - as Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds and Marnie.
- American Sniper - about Chris Kyle, who became the deadliest marksman in US military history. Sienna plays his wife Taya, an author and activist in her own right.
- Foxcatcher - about eccentric wrestling enthusiast John du Pont. She plays Nancy Schultz, wife of Dave Schultz, who is hired as a coach and later murdered by John.
- The Lost City of Z - about Percy Fawcett, explorer of South America. Sienna plays his wife Nina.
- Career Resurrection: The tabloid circus surrounding her private life ended up overshadowing her acting career, so she took two years to appear on the stage instead. The HBO series The Girl marked a new phase in her career - where she earned more attention for her acting talents.
- Creator Breakdown: The paparazzi's obsession with her personal life and the scandalous public image she had ended up affecting her so badly, she took two years away from films.
- Deleted Role:
- Foxcatcher's original cut was four hours, so in the 130 minute cut, a lot of Nancy's screen time is reduced.
- Her part in Black Mass was entirely deleted due to "narrative choices".
- Dyeing for Your Art: For G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, she dyed her blonde hair black, weight trained for four months and learned how to box and fire live ammunition.
- Enforced Method Acting: In Burnt, she and all the other actors playing the chefs had to prepare food with all the hazards of a real kitchen. They had real chefs as extras in the scenes, adding to the pressurized environment.
- Everybody Loves Blondes: In the 2000s, this was her initial image; that of the sexy, Good Bad Girl.
- Fake American: Although born in New York, she was raised in the UK and speaks with an English accent naturally. Half her roles are Americans though.
- How's Your British Accent?: There's a scene in Alfie where her character Nikki (who's American) briefly imitates an English accent.
- Meta Casting: Around the time she was enjoying a reputation as a promiscuous homewrecker, she did Stardust - playing a Rich Bitch who plays two men off each other. Notably in the book, Victoria was Spoiled Sweet instead.
- Ms. Fanservice: As a former model with a 'wild child' public image, she found herself doing this a lot. She was able to transcend this in The New '10s.
- Old Shame: She's described G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as a disaster, and feels she wasn't able to properly play a villain.
- Romance on the Set: She and Jude Law got together while making Alfie. It ended with infidelity on his part, but got rekindled for a couple of years later.
- Star-Making Role: Layer Cake and Alfie brought her to prominence.
- Those Two Actors: Not as egregious as most examples, but she and Bradley Cooper literally went from American Sniper to Burnt together.
- What Could Have Been: She replaced Lindsay Lohan for The Edge Of Love.
