Kate Winslet upset people think her VF photos were airbrushed

Kate Winslet is absolutely livid that anyone would think she’s been airbrushed for her Vanity Fair photo shoot. And while Winslet isn’t known for making a stink about things unnecessarily, the problem is that the cover doesn’t look much like her. She’s a very beautiful woman, partly because she doesn’t look like everyone else. And on the VF cover she looks like a slightly taller Olsen twin/Nicole Richie hybrid. Only more elegant, and vaguely Kate Winslet-looking.

Just a day after Kate Winslet revealed in a Vanity Fair interview that she still feels like the “fat kid,” critics in her home country are lining up to claim she still is. But the svelte five-time-Oscar-nominee isn’t having it: “Kate is furious at suggestions that her body has been airbrushed,” her rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The Sun ponders on its front page whether “that magic airbrush has been at work again” and the Daily Telegraph got a digital retouching expert to analyze the photos. But the closest scrutiny comes from the Daily Mail, which engaged a professional airbrush artist to perform an autopsy on Winslet, who was shot wearing heels, black stockings and nothing else. “She is in terrific shape and what you see is how she looks or she would never have agreed to pose for those shots,” adds her rep.

Why the British furor over the 33-year-old mom-of-two? In early 2003 Britain’s GQ magazine – a stablemate of Vanity Fair – ran digitally “slimmed” photos of Winslet that drew much criticism. Within days Winslet apologized. “I just didn’t want people to think I was a hypocrite and that I’d suddenly lost 30 lbs. or whatever,” the youngest ever five-time Oscar nominee said at the time. “So I just came out and said, ‘Look, I don’t look like that’. I’m not mad at the magazine, but I have no intention of looking like that.”

Winslet’s rep does admit that minor tweaks were done to the actress for the photoshoot but insists the work was confined to skin shades only. “The only retouching was the usual work on skin tone that happens in every glamour shoot,” adds the rep.

[From People]

While Kate does look a bit thinner than I’d expect, I think the biggest reason people are calling “Photoshop!” on her is because she doesn’t look quite like herself in the face. Certainly a good (or bad) makeup artist can drastically alter the appearance of a person’s face, and professional lighting can make a big difference as well. And the point of a professional shot is that you look a little better than you. However, the subject should still be identifiable. If I didn’t know who this was, it would probably take me a minute to settle on Kate Winslet. But that could easily have as much to do with the styling and makeup as anything else; it doesn’t inherently scream “fake!”

In terms of Kate’s weight and the shape of her body, there is a careful draping of coats and use of shadow. Considering all the controversy that happened with her G.Q. photos, I seriously doubt she would allow herself to have her weight digitally altered again.

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25 Responses to “Kate Winslet upset people think her VF photos were airbrushed”

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  1. Nova says:

    I don’t get how everyone says it doesn’t look like her. It does to me and I never thought any different. I can see how they smoothed her skin…but most of the shots she is partially covered so I dont see how everyone thinks she looks uber-thin. She looks gorgeous and intentionally made up to look a bit like Catherine Deneuve. Love her!

  2. Amy says:

    I dont think she has been airbrushed, but it does look like the make-up artist did the full works on her body. nobody’s skin shines like that without a little help.

  3. ER says:

    I thought all magazine covers were airbrushed. They remove any flaws and give that glossy look of perfection. Nobody really looks like that. Plus, I didn’t realize Kate Winslet had gotten that thin, if indeed she has and wasn’t airbrushed!

  4. KateNonymous says:

    To me the cover looks like Kate Winslet channeling Catherine Deneuve, which is exactly what it’s supposed to look like. I don’t find her unrecognizable, though, and I certainly don’t see a resemblance to Nicole Richie or either Olson twin!

  5. Ponytail says:

    “And the point of a professional shot is that you look a little better than you. However, the subject should still be identifiable.”
    But the point of this shoot was that she look like Catherine Deneuve – which she does. So, a sucessful shoot, as far as the magazine goes. Where’s the problem ? 🙄

  6. Kaiser says:

    I think she looks like her herself, and I believe her if she’s saying her body looks that good.

    But I’m overwhelmed constantly with my love of La Winslet. It might be blinding me. 😳

    Sidenote – Who took the pics? Annie Liebovitz? If it’s Annie, the pics probably aren’t all that air-brushed, because I don’t think Annnie believes in a lot of that stuff, as a photographer.

  7. Carrie says:

    The Olsen twins should be so lucky!

  8. ff says:

    I don’t know, is this about photoshop or people thinking she can’t look that good without someone airbrushing off 10lbs first? Because everybody gets ‘shopped but she probably means she’s upset everybody thought she was so fat that those photos *had* to be photoshopped to look ‘presentable’.

    I think the truth is somewhere in between – yes, there was minimal retouching. Did she look 80-90% as hot before retouching? Yes.

    As for the cover: but it does look like her – I’m starting to wonder what people think she looks like. She just had her hair done a particular way and makeup but I recognise her as Kate Winslet straight off the bat.

    To be honest, given the alien mutating job I’ve seen done on some magazine cover actresses – this actually looks recognisably human. So I’d say it’s either very clever or very minimal. I do think some skin smoothing was done – or it was make up and good lighting.

    Either way, she looks smoking!

  9. Feebee says:

    I saw a candid shot of Winslet a couple of months ago in workout gear and she is indeed a lot slimmer than we’ve seen in the past with defined leg muscles suggesting a lot of cardio work too. I don’t think she looks off on the cover. She is 4 years older than the last time and that’s what I see… a beautiful 33 year old Kate Winslet (with higher hair than we’ve ever seen on her before).

  10. Buttercup says:

    I think she looks gorgeous, Team Kate! 😀

  11. campylaura says:

    I think in these photos she evokes that same sophisticated sultry appeal that Kim Novak had – Catherine Deneuve also is a great comparison. The photos are obviously very stylized to have a timeless appeal.

    I also thought that all magazine covers are photoshopped and it’s been common knowledge for quite a while.

    I would think that the subject of the photo shoot has little say or even knowledge of what transpires with their photos before they ever get published, but I may be wrong. I’m not saying that I think they did any serious manipulation to make her look different but I think they photoshop everything to be as perfect as possible.

  12. COG says:

    Annie Leibovitz side note: she does digitally enhance her pix. She has even mentioned that in photos that the subject appears outdoors, they are in fact digitally dropped-in backgrounds.

  13. Alison C says:

    Do you guys have any journalism training? I had to read this headline 10 times. BAD BREAKS!!!!

  14. Granger says:

    There’s quite a difference between airbrushing and photoshopping. Obviously, Kate’s skin has been airbrushed to remove blemishes, undereye circles, or redness; that’s just par for the course. But photoshopping implies they’ve actually altered her body parts to make them thinner or longer, and I just don’t think that’s the case here.

  15. ff says:

    Thanks Granger, I figured it was a problem with the terms being used. To most people online airbrushing and photoshop are synonymous.

  16. queenie says:

    I’m sorry but no woman’s ass is that perky when she is lying down…curve is too perfect and looks like every other model’s photoshopped ass.

  17. chick says:

    OK, the photos weren’t airbrushed. they were just filtered, back-lighted, and photoshopped. feel better now Kate?

  18. Viggolover says:

    She looks like Kate Winslet to me! She looks amazing!

    I doubt she would go to all the trouble to complain if she HAD been airbrushed and wasnt the problem years ago that they lengthened her legs and she cracked it?

  19. anti-tox says:

    Spray on foundation. Parasite is amajor user of this flawless-skin ‘glow’ product.

  20. susann says:

    I do work in postproduction- this is so retouched.

  21. WTF?!?! says:

    Magazines retouch photos for a variety of reasons, and the model doesn’t get final say on what alterations are made. Very, very few even get a voice on which pics are used. The pic is definitely photoshopped (they do it ALL digitally now, and as pointed out by many, “airbrushing” is an archaic term that refers to erasing on an actual photograph), but I think she’s stunning with or without.

    Oh, and Alison– as one with journalism training and headline/caption writing experience, ROFLMAO!!!

  22. Ashley says:

    I still call photoshop.

    Next time get pictures of her naked in one of her many films and do a side by side.

  23. Jeanne says:

    Kate looks beautiful because she is but her facial features do not look like herself. She looks like a young Catherine Deneuve. Sorry I liked her a little chubbier with red hair; she seemed so natural then. Why does Hollywood continue to cookie cutter actresses?

  24. Beaxxxmwuahzzzz says:

    Ok Ok Is it jsut me or does she look like Rosalie ( Twilight book) I’m sorry but seeing her like this I think she IS Rosaile in those pictures

  25. Evan says:

    I once went to a media-planner luncheon at the Conde Nast building, and one of the speakers was the photo editor for VF.

    He said, absolutely, airbrushing happens ALL THE TIME there, in fact, he considers it an art in inself.

    He was mad that people even thought they shouldn’t… They also passed around some real proof sheets of Annie Liebowitz. I think he talked about not wanting to “ruin the fantasy” or some shiz like that.

    But, yes. Airbrush is everywhere. Like pro makeup, lighting, photographers, and gifted genetics aren’t enough!

    And since this was VF we are talking about, I would bet everything I own that it WAS airbrushed.

    Shit, they didn’t even TRY to pretend that the pictures of the Queen of England standing in the royal garden were not two seperate images that they combined. (On their own website!)