2001–2003: Early acting credits Miller's screen debut came in the romantic comedy
South Kensington (2001), opposite
Rupert Everett and
Elle Macpherson. In 2002, she had supporting roles in
High Speed and its follow-up
The Ride, and guest-starred in
The American Embassy and
Bedtime. She had a regular role as the combative yet caring flatmate of an
NYPD detective in the television drama series
Keen Eddie (2003). It was Miller's first exposure to American audiences. FOX cancelled it after only seven episodes.
2004–2008: Breakthrough and tabloid notoriety With roles in two commercial films and a higher public profile due to her relationship with actor
Jude Law, 2004 was a turning point for Miller's career. The crime thriller
Layer Cake, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring
Daniel Craig, featured her as the love interest of a London-based cocaine supplier.
The New York Times called Miller "a new
It Girl who barely registers on-screen despite wearing little more than lacey filaments that make her look like a gift meant to be unwrapped very quickly". In
Alfie, the
remake of
Bill Naughton's
1966 film, she played the girlfriend of a cockney limo driver and
sex addict (Jude Law). Of her It Girl status, she said at the time: "I'm not very happy about it, to be honest. It makes me uncomfortable because I don't think it's as a result of having a film come out, [but] being scrutinised because of the relationship I'm in". Miller portrayed a writer of illegal feminist books and the love interest of
Giacomo Casanova (
Heath Ledger) in the 2005 period dramedy
Casanova. It made $37.6 million, and
Entertainment Weekly, in a favorable review, wrote: "Ms. Miller has a modern, smart-girl look about her; her Francesca is neither too tough to melt nor too glittering from the
Emma Thompson school of smarties". Also in 2005 she made her
West End debut in a revival of
As You Like It at the
Wyndhams Theatre playing Celia, the lesser cousin to Rosalind, receiving generally lukewarm observation yet one caustic review came from Paul Taylor of
The Independent. He wrote: "She approaches an emotion with the finesse of someone beating a carpet" and that she "brings to it all the ripe professional stage experience that can be mustered from appearing in three movies". Miller took on the role of 1960s
socialite and
Andy Warhol's muse
Edie Sedgwick in the 2006 biographical drama
Factory Girl. Johnny Vaughan of
Sun Online concluded, "[i]t's Sienna Miller's star that shines brightest in this heartbreaking cautionary tale", but
Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reads: "Despite a dedicated performance by Sienna Miller,
Factory Girl delves only superficially into her character, and ultimately fails to tell a coherent story." In 2007, Miller had a role as the love interest of a young man from a fictional British town in
Matthew Vaughn's adaptation
Stardust, and played a starlet in
Steve Buscemi's
Interview, a remake of Dutch filmmaker
Theo van Gogh's 2003
movie of the same name. Budgeted at $65 million,
Stardust grossed $137 million worldwide, while critics felt that Buscemi's and Miller's "captivating performances" in
Interview made "a seemingly simple premise gripping and entertaining". In
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008), a film adaptation of
Michael Chabon's
novel, Miller played a woman romantically involved with a rebellious bisexual man. It premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival and received a limited release. She created a minor stir in
Pittsburgh when, in a 2006 interview with
Rolling Stone, she called the city "Shitsburgh", saying, "Can you believe this is my life? Will you pity me when you're back in your funky New York apartment and I'm still in Pittsburgh? I need to get more glamorous films and stop with my indie year." Miller was parodied in Pittsburgh media (including one article headlined "Semi-famous actress dumps on the 'Burgh") and criticised for making what was seen as an unnecessarily disparaging remark, given the special treatment the film's cast and crew had received from the visitors' bureau and other city offices. Miller apologised and said her remarks were taken out of context. In the 2008 British biographical drama
The Edge of Love, Miller appeared alongside
Keira Knightley as
Caitlin Macnamara, the wife of poet
Dylan Thomas. Despite a mixed critical reception,
The Hollywood Reporter critic Ray Bennett wrote that it was a "wonderfully atmospheric tale of love and war", and that "the film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star." Miller earned a
BIFA nomination for
Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She also voiced a circus fox in the animated film ''
A Fox's Tale (2008) and played an undead newlywed in the romantic comedy Camille''.
2009–2011: Screen hiatus Miller was cast as
The Baroness in the live-action film adaptation of the
G.I. Joe franchise
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), her first—and to date, only—mainstream Hollywood blockbuster. She auditioned because it did not involve "having a breakdown or [being] 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." She sprained her wrist after slipping on a
rubber bullet while filming a fight scene with
Rachel Nichols.
G.I. Joe was not well received by most critics, but made $302.5 million worldwide.
The Irish Independent observed that Miller's professional trajectory had reached "its lowest ebb" with
G.I. Joe, an experience that "convinced her she had well and truly lost her way"; in an interview with
UK's Esquire magazine, she said that roles dried up because "people don't want to see films with people they don't approve of in them". She opted to take a hiatus from films for the next two years and work in theater instead. In 2009, Miller played the title role in
Patrick Marber's
After Miss Julie on Broadway. She told
The New York Times: "This is what I have always wanted, to be on Broadway. I'm living my dream, and that's all you can ask for. At a certain point, you have to ignore all the rest". On her performance,
The Guardian stated: "Miller masters it intermittently—an accomplishment, however incomplete." She starred as a former starlet caught up in a love-triangle in
Trevor Nunn's 2011 production of
Flare Path at London's
Theatre Royal Haymarket.
2012–2017: Resurgence After her professional slump, Miller experienced what journalists called a "career revival" "All the directors speak to each other," she said in an interview. "And once you crack that upper echelon of incredible directors, you've got people rooting for you. People who people listen to. I've never had that before". Live birds were used for the recreation of the attic scene in Hitchcock's
The Birds. Miller told the
Radio Times, "I did go through a bird attack for two hours. It pales in comparison to what [Hedren] was subjected to, but it was pretty horrible. There were men off-camera with boxes of birds, throwing seagulls and pigeons in my face". The film received mixed reviews, but the
Daily Mirrors Jane Simon wrote: "[G]liding gracefully through it all (and with an impeccable American accent) Sienna Miller brings untouchable beauty and icy glamour, but also captures the extraordinary resilience Hedren must have had to withstand everything Hitchcock threw at her." Writing for
The Telegraph,
Clive James said "[a] better choice [to play Hedren] could not have been made than Sienna Miller, who is even lovelier than Hedren was". She garnered nominations for the
BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress and the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. In 2012, she also played a socialite in the
dramedy Two Jacks, the hysterical sister of an elementary teacher in the drama
Yellow, and a housewife who aspires to complete in a belly-dance competition in the made-for-television film
Just like a Woman. In 2014, Miller portrayed Nancy Schultz, the wife of murdered Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler
Dave Schultz, in
Bennett Miller's
Foxcatcher, and
Taya Renae Kyle, the wife of
United States Navy SEAL sniper
Chris Kyle, in
Clint Eastwood's
American Sniper. Both films were highly acclaimed, and
American Sniper emerged as the highest-grossing war film of all time. In 2015, she took on the roles of a prostitute in the road drama
Mississippi Grind, the former boss of a hard-working small business owner in the comedy
Unfinished Business, a single mother in the dystopian film
High-Rise, and that of a
sous-chef in the drama
Burnt, which reunited her with Bradley Cooper. For
High-Rise, she received a BIFA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Miller also took the role of
Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival of
Cabaret after
Emma Stone's scheduled departure from the production and performed for the last six weeks of the show's engagement, in February and March 2015. The
New York Daily News praised her "cocky and steely" performance and wrote that her approach to the role "works well in the
Kander and Ebb songs 'Don't Tell Momma' and 'Perfectly Marvelous'." She was selected to be on the jury for the main competition section of the
2015 Cannes Film Festival. Miller appeared in
Paramount Pictures and
Plan B Entertainment's adaptation of
The Lost City of Z (2016), directed by
James Gray, portraying Nina Fawcett, the wife of British geographer
Percy Fawcett.
The New York Times called her "wonderful" in her role, while
Time described her as "luminous and astute". In
Ben Affleck's period crime drama
Live by Night (2016), Miller played the mistress of a notorious gangster and the love interest of a World War I veteran. In 2017, Miller starred in the drama
The Private Life of a Modern Woman, which screened out of competition at the
74th Venice International Film Festival, and in a West End production of the
Tennessee Williams classic
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, at the
Apollo Theatre.
Since 2018 In 2018, Miller appeared in the war film
The Catcher Was a Spy as Estella, the girlfriend of
Moe Berg, a catcher for the
Boston Red Sox who joined the
OSS during
World War II, as well as the drama
American Woman, in which she portrays a single mother faced with raising her grandson after her daughter goes missing under mysterious circumstances.
American Woman, which gave Miller some of the best reviews of her career, was her first role as the main character not bolstered by any other actors, and marked the first time she was able to delve into a woman character's life in "nuanced ways". Miller remarked: "These opportunities have been few and far between, and that's intrinsic to being a woman in film. I think it's quite rare; not necessarily specific to me, but at 37 years old, I'm thrilled I've had this opportunity. I've done good supporting work in fantastic films and had to work very hard to show something in smaller moments. I loved being able to have the space and time to really do everything I want to with a character". and with a worldwide gross of $50 million, the film was a moderate commercial success. She next took the role of Beth Ailes, the wife of television executive
Roger Ailes (played by
Russell Crowe), in the miniseries
The Loudest Voice (2019), which aired on
Showtime. Miller struggled to find material on which to base her performance aside from the script and
Gabriel Sherman's book
The Loudest Voice in the Room. During an interview with
Entertainment Weekly, she said: "There's very little footage of her that I had access to. But there were these two speeches which she gave, which were on YouTube, and another little interview, so I really kind of based my research around that, and relied on the script because there's just not a lot of information on her out there. But the interview and the speeches I found really revealing". In February 2024, she joined the short film
Marion as an executive producer. ==Other endeavours==