Andy Samberg has credited his co-star Kate Winslet with helping him get through the “horrible” wartime scenes in their new movie Lee.

The biographical drama tells the story of British Vogue war correspondent Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller, who spent much of World War II documenting life on the ground in Europe alongside her friend, Life magazine photographer David Scherman.

Samberg, who is Jewish like his character, admitted to Collider that Winslet encouraged him to lean into his real emotions while filming scenes at a concentration camp.

“I think I have a personal connection to some of that stuff with my own family. That helped, but really, it was about putting my trust in (director) Ellen (Kuras) and with Kate,” he said. “I will say Kate really helped me through a lot of it and really just told me to get out of my head, experience it, and let myself go there. She was very sweet and kept telling me I could do it.”

The former Saturday Night Live star, who is best known for his comedy work, noted that he is used to undercutting dramatic moments with humour but he wasn’t able to use that technique in Lee.

“When you come from the comedic side of things, it’s my natural instinct to undercut, to protect myself. But in this case, you have to be fully open and vulnerable, dive fully into it, and go for it. That’s what I did,” he continued. “I tried to experience it as much as if it was really happening as I could. The way they shot it, the cameras were all really far away. It was horrible, and it felt horrible, and I let it be horrible.”

Samberg added that he felt like he owed it “to history” and the people who “actually went through those things” to endure that difficult experience.

Lee, which Winslet also produced, is in cinemas now.

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