Talking Shop: Rebecca Miller

Rebecca Miller says her latest film was "emotionally demanding"

Being the daughter of legendary playwright Arthur Miller and Austrian photographer Inge Morath, it was perhaps inevitable Rebecca Miller would have a career in the creative arts.

Her various careers as an actress, writer and director, though, have enabled her to step out from her late father's long shadow.

Her latest film, adapted from her own novel, is The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - a drama about a housewife, played by Robin Wright Penn, who is having what she describes as "a very quiet nervous breakdown".

At the Edinburgh International Film Festival last month, Miller spoke about the film, her leading lady and her distinguished lineage.

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Pippa is a woman who realises there is more to life than a comfortable existence with her wealthy publisher husband. How much of you is in the character?

Pippa is not particularly autobiographical. However, her characteristics, preoccupations and fears are all things I'm working through in my work.

I'm pretty far from Pippa as a character, which is partly why I love her so much. But at the same time I feel very close to the story.

I think as a storyteller you take yourself further down a road you know to be your own than you would ever go. If you limit yourself to autobiography, you run out of things to say really fast because you can only live so much.

The world Pippa lives in is quite a precious and pretentious one. Was there a danger this might prove alienating to the audience?

Yes, it's hard to represent literate people without making them seem like tossers! But at the same time I'm interested in that world, of people who are involved with words either as writers or as publishers.

Robin Wright Penn and Keanu Reeves star in the film

I think it's refreshing to see literate people on screen, though Pippa herself isn't really part of that world - her intelligence is less book-learned, more instinctive.

The film is about a woman who wakes up and breaks free. Was that the message you wanted to put across?

I just think the temptation to put different parts of ourselves in boxes is tremendous. We are adaptive creatures; we adapt to marriage, we adapt to having children and so on. We begin to mutate and change. That's only natural, but with that comes a kind of repression.

I think a lot of people are actually depressed because they've repressed so many elements of their natural selves in order to behave. I'm not saying that is necessarily bad, just that consciousness is good. We shouldn't allow ourselves to just drift away from our natural selves without being conscious of it.

Why did you cast Robin Wright Penn in the title role?

I really believe that Robin is one of the finest actresses of her generation. She's just an extraordinary actress and has so much inside her in terms of range. I think she could go up against any of the so-called big actresses.

And what's great about her too is she hasn't worked too much - you haven't seen her do everything yet. She's got a lot left to surprise people with and she has a quality about her that's quite ageless and timeless. I think it has something to do with her cheek bones!

In addition to Robin Wright Penn, your cast includes Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Monica Bellucci. Did you intentionally set out to fill your movie with strong female parts?

I didn't set out thinking I was going to contribute to the cause of women by giving them good roles. But it does so happen that my reality is filled with strong, interesting women, so my work reflects that. As a film-maker, though, it is one of the contributions I am able to make.

I really believe that Robin is one of the finest actresses of her generation Rebecca Miller

The film also features Keanu Reeves sporting a remarkable Jesus tattoo on his chest. How did that come about?

It was quite a tattoo! It took a huge amount of effort to get it properly designed; we went through several tattoo artists and nobody got it right. I felt it should be more Mexican in style but the guy who was doing it kept on doing it wrong.

So I went to Julian Schnabel's studio and told him I was having problems. He made a painting on a piece of cardboard which ended up being used as the basis for what the tattoo looked like. He doesn't get a credit; he'll just have to live with the knowledge he did me a favour.

How did you find working with your actor husband Daniel Day-Lewis on your 2005 film The Ballad of Jack and Rose?

It was good, if tough - it was a tough, emotionally demanding film to make. But we had a great time collaboratively; it was really wonderful and fruitful.

It deepened the friendship part of our relationship because when you're doing something like that you have to create a room that's not your marriage in order to work together. And he wouldn't do something like that as a favour. I know he did it because he really wanted to do it.

Was it inevitable you would follow your parents into the family business?

I wasn't any good at anything else! All my skills and talents had to do with making art in one way or another, so it seemed natural.

I suppose if everyone in the family is a trapeze artist it's pretty easy to find yourself flying through the air at a very early age.

I do think you can choose to embrace that or deny it and become a scientist. My math skills weren't good enough, so it was the trapeze for me.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is out on 10 July. Rebecca Miller was talking to BBC News website entertainment reporter Neil Smith.