Sienna Miller will play no part in the real-life mob drama Black Mass after scenes she filmed as the girlfriend of Johnny Depp’s Irish gangland boss Whitey Bulger were cut from the movie.
Director Scott Cooper told the Boston Globe the British actor had been “fantastic” as Catherine Greig, who has been described in the media as Bulger’s long-term partner. But he said a decision was made at the last minute to focus on the mobster’s earlier life in the Massachusetts capital. “It came down to narrative choices,” he said, adding that the gangster’s later years as a fugitive with Greig were “less dramatic”.
Greig is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for helping Bulger evade capture for more than 16 years. The former dental hygienist is thought to have begun dating the mobster and erstwhile FBI informer in the mid-1970s, but joined him on the run in early 1995 and was arrested with him in Santa Monica in 2011.
Black Mass, which will have its world premiere at the Venice film festival on 4 September, follows Bulger as he teams up with the FBI to bring down a rival Italian mafia clan in the 70s and 80s, during which period the gangster was solidifying his position as head of the Irish-American Winter Hill mob (pdf). As well as Depp in the lead role, the cast includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Johnson, Juno Temple, Kevin Bacon and Corey Stoll.
Miller had described her turn in Black Mass as a “cameo” in interviews but said she learned to speak in a south Boston accent for the two-week shoot. “She was quite a character from south Boston,” she said of Greig. “The accent was something I really focused on because playing someone from Southie, you don’t want to mess that up. Hopefully I’ve managed to pull that off.”
Cooper’s film is also due to screen at the Toronto film festival, on 14 September, four days prior to its release in US cinemas. It will arrive in UK cinemas on 27 November. If well-received, it is expected to be part of the 2015-16 awards season conversation.
It’s not the first time Miller, currently experiencing a career revival in Hollywood following her turn in the blockbuster Iraq war drama American Sniper, has found herself cast adrift from a major production. In 2009 she was culled from Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, then titled Nottingham, amid rumours her slenderness and youth showed up leading man Russell Crowe. The role of Maid Marion in the production eventually went to Cate Blanchett.
