Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out Of The Furnace) recently told the Boston Globe that actress Sienna Miller has been edited out of his new Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass. Miller previously appeared in American Sniper, where director Clint Eastwood primarily used her for an endless series of anguished reaction shots in a role which probably could have been trimmed down.
Perhaps as a result of celluloid karma, Cooper found Miller’s character in Black Mass—that of Bulger’s girlfriend/co-fugitive Catherine Greig—to be one of the least essential parts of the story. The director said that although Miller was “fantastic” opposite star Johnny Depp, his decision “came down to narrative choices.” Cooper explained that he ultimately decided to focus on Bulger’s years before leaving Boston because the scenes where he is on the run with Greig are “less dramatic.”
The now Sienna Miller-less Black Mass hits theaters September 18.