Is there any truth to "War"?
Sienna Millerstars as A-list actress Carla Duval, whose messy split from her famous husband, Morgan Henderson (Dominic West), unfolds amid a glamorous movie premiere and a raging tabloid storm in HBO's new legal drama (Episode 1 airs Oct. 1, 9 p.m. ET/PT, streaming on Max).
It's all fiction. But there are enough parallels to the British stars' real lives – flashbulb-filled red carpets, bruising experiences with paparazzi and intense public scrutiny of private relationships – that viewers could wonder whether "War" draws from Miller's or West's own experiences.
That misconception didn't deter Miller or West from taking the juicy, dramatic parts in the anticipated series from executive producerGeorge Kay ("Lupin," "Hijack"),
which is being promoted as the spiritual successor to"Succession." In fact, it was liberating for the actors to play those experiences through their fictional characters.
"For me personally, I suppose there are circumstances that would be somewhat familiar," Miller, 44, tells USA TODAY during a joint interview with West. "It was interesting to play those as a different person and react to them in a different way to myself."
"I don't feel necessarily that I need to spend more time exploring press intrusion and paparazzi," Miller adds. "I think I've had enough for a lifetime of that in my own world. But I did enjoy playing Carla in those circumstances."
West, whose smooth tech-mogul character is a step further removed from his own persona, also relished playing someone subjected to the media grind he lived through in 2020.
“It was fun seeing it all through someone else’s eyes, through a billionaire businessman’s eyes,” West, 56, says, invoking the German word “schadenfreude” – pleasure at someone else’s misfortune – to describe the appeal.
“There's a schadenfreude in watching a billionaire undergoing that sort of scrutiny that actors get," he says. " I was thinking, 'That’s a great thing.'"
Miller, whose high-profile relationship with fellow superstar Jude Law was 2000s tabloid fodder, says she didn’t think about viewers drawing parallels to her own life.
“I feel so different to [Carla] as a character,” Miller says of her actor character, who navigates a career that is slipping from big-budget movie lead roles to prestigious but low-paying London stage plays. "I don't really get concerned with what people think. I should probably spend more time being concerned about how things might appear. But what do we do for a living? We tell stories."
"I should be more of a strategist in my career," Miller adds dryly. "But I've never quite got that memo."
Kay reiterates that there are no truthful links to the famous actors and the “War” characters, who are operatically encircled by their own teams of top-level lawyers played by Phoebe Fox and James McArdle (Team Carla) along with Pip Torrens and Nina Sosanya (Team Morgan).
HBO has greenlit an entirely new Season 2 of “War," promising a different legal battle and a fresh set of high-powered clients – with actors Marisa Tomei, Kelly Macdonald, David Harewood and Richard Schiff joining the anthology for a defamation case.
Kay was inspired for "War" after meeting a woman celebrating the end of a bitter four-year divorce battle. He had already written the pilot for Season 1, about the fabulously famous tech split, when both West and Miller signed onboard. That pilot script featured a movie premiere scene in which divorce papers are delivered dramatically to Carla on the red carpet, as the smiling actress is still publicly on the arm of husband Morgan.
Carla’s red-carpet ambush recalls Olivia Wilde being handed custody papers from ex Jason Sudeikis while onstage at CinemaCon in 2022 (Sudeikis' rep said he had no knowledge of where the papers would be delivered).
"It's a nod to the fact that some people get served in a public environment, like what happened with Olivia Wilde," says Kay. "But it's not based on that."
After West and Miller signed on, Kay said he could hear their voices in his head as he wrote, without drawing on their real-life experiences.
"You start with best actress and actor for this. And if there are real-life parallels you could draw, it doesn't disturb me in any way," says Kay. "If you're going to make a drama about a film star, you need a film star to play the film star. And that's what Sienna brings. She has the look, the talent and the incredible relationship with the camera that brings Carla to life."
If anything, Miller brought her own sense of fashion to the role, dressing Carla in chic, vintage outfits.
"That is something that I am genuinely into in my own life, and that is an aesthetic I wanted to bring to her," says Miller. "That's about it in the real similarities."
West, who starred as Prince Charles in Seasons 5 and 6 of "The Crown," says his biggest personal contribution to Morgan was making the tech billionaire a little warmer.
"I argued for Morgan to be nicer, because I'm desperate to be liked generally," says West. "I did love it when he was ruthless. But I probably made him softer than we should have done."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sienna Miller, Dominic West reveal how much of HBO's 'War' is based on their lives
