As society refocuses on the treatment Britney Spears faced in the spotlight through a new lens, Sienna Miller already sees it clearly.
In the early aughts, the now-39-year-old actress was a rising star, whose relationship with ex Jude Law and his subsequent cheating scandal made her a ceaseless target of the paparazzi and a fixture in the press. In that same era, Spears navigated the sea of cameras that endlessly followed her day after day, even capturing the moment she shaved her head one night in February 2007. It's an event chronicled in the newly released New York Times and FX documentary episode, Framing Britney Spears, which Miller confirmed to The Guardian she—like many around the world—has been watching. But, unlike most, she can also relate.
"Everyone in the culture was complicit in what was being done to girls in that moment," she told the website. "I was definitely a victim of that, and I couldn't handle it. I don't know how anyone could. It was assault."
Reflecting on that treatment, Miller acknowledged the impact the torment would have—on purpose.
"I think the reaction from a lot of women under that kind of scrutiny at the time was to just lose it a little bit," she said. "You're in a perpetual state of anxiety. You're living this video-game existence, being hunted relentlessly. Watching the documentary, I could really relate to those moments where she cracks because it's unmanageable. It is aggressive and terrifying and you lose control. That's their intention."
As for how she managed it, Miller went to court. "If someone backs me into a corner, I will fight my way out. I was young, and under real scrutiny at a moment where tabloid culture was destructive," she told The Guardian. "I didn't want it, I fought it legally, and I triumphed."
For more on Framing Britney Spears, E! has compiled the most haunting moments from the documentary here.