“I’ve been through a lot, so there are corridors of emotions I can access that I simply didn’t have when I was younger,” says the actress-producer in a new interview with Vogue
It’s been 25 years since Kate Winslet graced the screen as Rose DeWitt Bukater in the Titanic, and in a recent interview with Vogue, the actress and producer reflected on the recent premiere of Lee, a film about war photographer Lee Miller.
The feature garnered buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival and stars the Academy Award winner, who produced, funded, and tenaciously vouched for the project. When looking back at the year-long journey it took to get the film off the ground, Winslet called out the male executives who patronized her when she was raising money for the film.
“The men who think you want and need their help are unbelievably outraging,” she told the publication. “I’ve even had a director say to me: ‘Listen, you do my film and I’ll get your little Lee funded…’ Little! Or we’d have potential male investors saying things like: Tell me, why am I supposed to like this woman?”
The experience prompted a discussion on the #MeToo movement that outed sexual predators and raised awareness on sexual abuse and harassment across industries.
“Oh, my God! This is the best part. Young actresses now — fuck me — they are unafraid,” she said. “It makes me so proud. And I think, Yes, all the shit flinging, all the struggle, all the using my voice for years, often being finger-pointed at and laughed at — I don’t give a shit! It was all bloody worth it. Because the culture is changing in the way that I couldn’t in my wildest dreams have imagined in my 20s.”
Winslet also addressed the social pressures on body image and ageism that continues to plague Hollywood. She said that she was “consistently told I was the wrong shape” and “would have to settle for less.” When asked why she didn’t, Winslet replied, “Cause I wasn’t going to take that shit from anyone.”
The icon pointed out scenes where she appeared topless or in a bikini. Winslet, who had been unable to exercise due to a back injury, said “I had to be really fucking brave about letting my body be its softest version of itself and not hiding from that.”
“And believe me, people amongst our own team would say, ‘You might just want to sit up a bit.’ And I’d go, ‘Why? [Because of] the bit of flesh you can see? No, that’s the way it’s going to be!’” she said.
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At 47, Winslet, who was involved with every aspect of the movie — from the finances to the script — said that her own life experiences have better prepared her to portray Miller.
“Frankly,” she said, “I’ve been through a lot, so there are corridors of emotions I can access that I simply didn’t have when I was younger.”
