Andy Samberg says he had to "unlearn his instincts" for his first dramatic role as a war photographer in Lee

When you think of a harrowing war movie, Andy Samberg may not be the first actor to jump to mind on a potential call sheet. He was for Lee star and producer Kate Winslet, though, who wanted the Brooklyn 99 and Palm Springs actor to join her in her new film about the Vogue war photographer Lee Miller. 

Lee is being touted as Samberg's first 'serious' role, but how does he feel about that categorization and the way it separates his comedic and dramatic work? "It's definitely the most dramatic thing I've acted in. I mean, there's not laugh points, really. I think it's a fair thing to say, because I did have to approach it differently," Samberg tells the Inside Total Film podcast and GamesRadar+ when we sit down with him in London. 

"You know, the first couple of days of shooting, I almost had to unlearn my normal instincts of, like, 'Oh, we could probably get an extra thing here, and a laugh here,' and to just give myself over to, like, 'Oh, this is already what it is. We're not, like, riffing. We're finding the most honest version of what is written.'"

Samberg plays Life magazine photographer David Scherman, who teamed up with Miller and traveled through France and Germany with her in the '40s. Together, the pair documented the siege of Saint-Malo, the liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald. 

"I will say, as someone who is generally pretty cynical about everything, I guess I did allow myself to get more earnest and open to the process," he adds. "I did see a lot of what you have to do by watching all of [the other actors]. You know, to give something that is elevated and takes it above."

Lee is released in theaters on September 13. For more on the movie, tune in to the latest episode of Inside Total Film. Plus, check out our guide to the rest of the best upcoming movies still to come in 2024.