Kate Winslet has given her first post-Oscar magazine interview to Marie Claire-UK, and she’s still trying to convince us that she’s one of us. Not with that lovely skin, Winslet. Kate says that she was bullied for being chubby when she was a kid, and that those weight/body image issues have carried into her adult life. Kate doesn’t see her herself as any kid of great, sexy beauty.
Film-related sidenote: I just rented Little Children and The Reader last weekend (I was in a Winslet mood) and she was wonderful in both of them. I actually liked Little Children overall much more than The Reader. The Reader was… well, I’ll just say that I understood why so many Jewish organizations were up in arms. They made a tragic moral comparison between illiteracy and the Holocaust. It was not good. But Winslet did good work in that film, and I understand why she won the Oscar for it.
Anyway, the Marie Claire-UK site has part of the Winslet interview up, but other sites have more quotes. Here’s the edited Marie Claire interview:
British Oscar winner Kate Winslet has revealed exclusively to Marie Claire magazine that she was bullied as a child and lived with the nickname ‘Blubber’.
The 33-year-old, who is now happily settled in New York with her director husband Sam Mendes and their five-year-old son, Joe and Winslet’s daughter, Mia, eight, reveals in the June edition: ‘I was bullied for being chubby. Where are they now!’ she jokes.
Despite her runaway success this year, winning her long-awaited Oscar for best actress for her role in The Reader, Winslet admits: ‘Even now I do not consider myself to be some kind of great, sexy beauty. Absolutely not.’
She is, however, at peace with her looks, having come to terms with her body as she has got older. ‘I don’t mind the way I’m ageing… I think I look my age, and that’s fine.
‘I don’t think I look younger than 33 and I don’t think I look particularly older than 33. I think I’m sort of holding it together.’
As the face of Lancôme’s Trésor fragrance, Winslet has used her status to be an outspoken advocate of real-sized women: ‘I do think it’s important for young women to know that magazine covers are retouched. People don’t really look like that. In my films I might look glamorous, but I’ve been in hair and make-up for two hours.’
During filming for the award-winning The Reader, Winslet even confessed to wearing body make-up for her nudity scenes. ‘With the nudity in The Reader, for example, even I was like, “Damn, I look good.” And that was the lighting – it was a bit of body make-up. I don’t believe in pretending those things don’t go on.’
[From Marie Claire-UK]
In the interview, Winslet also talked about how hard it is for the young actresses coming up, specifically how hard it is to have a healthy body image within the industry. She defended Keira Knightley, saying that the criticism the young actress has had to face has been “tough”. Winslet also says she’s really happy she doesn’t have to go through that:
Kate Winslet has stepped up to bat for Keira Knightley – insisting the young British pretender is facing a ‘crushing’ onslaught in the press.
The Oscar winner warned it would be difficult for Knightley, 24, to recover from her recent tabloid beating. ‘It’s really, really tough.’
“’She’s fat, she’s thin, she’s married, she’s divorced’ – I had all of that and bouncing back is f***ing hard.”
“I’m really, really happy I’m not a younger actor or actress working now because they have to run before they can walk,” the 33-year-old told the latest edition of Marie Claire magazine, which is out tomorrow.
[From Metro-UK]
I, too, am happy I don’t have to go through that. The media cycles on the weight of actresses, or any woman in the media, is rough. Winslet says it best with “She’s fat, she’s thin, she’s married, she’s divorced” – it’s always something.
Here’s Kate on February 11th in New York. Images thanks to Pacific Coast News.
When is this woman going to stop talking about het body or the way she looks?? It’s starting to get annoying.
haha Len.
Well, I do believe that the interviewer initiates the conversations about her body, but if not, I’m 100% with ya, WE GET IT KATE. You’re still very pretty none-the-less.
What’s even annoying is how she’s doing it to look like, “One of us.”
That woman will never be “One of us.”
Actors and actresses in Hollywood in general will never be “One of us.”
On another note, there is one that seems to be pretty close (and I think he kinda is “one of us” – actor Hugh Jackman. Ordering coffee and doughnuts for people waiting in line to get tickets for the premiere of his movie? Creating a contest where the Wolverine movie premieres in a city of the voters’ choice and SKIPPING the glamour of LA? Amazing. 😀
Kate has thing thing about being recognized as the fat girl who got skinny so let’s just give her her moment. At least she can keep her personal and professional lives on track.
She should get over herself. Used to really like her. Now it is all about her…….blah, blah, blah. So she lost some weight. Big deal.
I adore this woman. LOVE AND ADORE. She can do no wrong in my eyes.
I think I should be the first and most vehement Kate-a-loonie!
That is really strange, she sound like a nice person, but the more she speak the less i like her. Something must be wrong with me.
It is so sad how society treats overweight people… sad !!
This is my first time posting and I have a comment to make about the writer’s interpretation of “The Reader”. With all due respect, the writer contends that The Reader “made a tragic moral comparison between illiteracy and the Holocaust”. I feel the writer has largely missed the message of the film. As someone who has read the book, critiques of the book and seen the film, The Reader used the theme of ‘illiteracy’ as a metaphor to reflect the German people’s willful blindness to the Holocaust. Hannah’s inability to read made her ripe for complacency with respect to the atrocities being committed around her (ie. she took a job as a guard because she wouldn’t have to read). It is only once she begins to read that she also comes to acknowledge and accept her role in those atrocities. And that role is not forgiven. She is not redeemed. In fact, she fully dismisses her own importance very clearly. Near the end of the film she says, “It doesn’t matter what I think, it doesn’t matter what I feel…the dead are still dead.” I think this beautifully constructed film was largely misunderstood.
It’s not just you Anais. I think she’s a great actress and I really used to like her but sometime during that whole Oscar campaign, I started to go off on her. Maybe I caught one too many whiffs of bullshit, I don’t know. Now here she is talking about her body YET AGAIN. God! Enough already Kate. She’s starting to come off as just another narcissitic celeb with body image issues.
Kate, you’ve never been any kind of beauty. You got nekkid in a bunch of films playing characters that the all the pretty girls wouldn’t touch – some very bad and some very good, mind you -and they gave you the Oscar for Best Actress. A++ Now, go away.
It’s interesting to me to see how quickly the general public will turn on a celebrity at any given time. They’re popular for a while and then bam, they do or say something more than once and immediately we strive to villanize them in some way (and I’m not excluding myself from this list although in this particular case I adore Kate Winslet and don’t care how often she talks about being fat). I’m honestly curious if it’s more of a “we hate you because we want to be like you and aren’t” or if it’s a “we hate you because you think you’re one of us”. Where does all the intense rage for someone we’ve never met come from?
And it seems to becoming more and more “trendy” to try and be the first person or group to hate a celebrity that everyone else loves. I find that even more interesting… I really should have been a psychologist I think. 😉
@Kelly – well, this website is called CeleBitchy. 😉
Although I completely agree, mind you.
Why do we do this? We may never know – except visiting this website after a long, dreadful day and nobody to yell at may have something to do with it!
Or half of us probably just read another insanely ridiculous story about Lilo, Speidi, or Octomom.
@Serephina – I completely agree with your interpretation of the book and film. I loved both and found the story incredibly moving, heart-felt and sad.
Re Kate, love her as an actress but wish she’d stop giving interviews. Less is more and all this ‘size’ talk is really beginning to grate.
She’s pretty but that chip on her shoulder isn’t. Get over it already.
Oh and I read the Reader as well and I don’t understand why the Jewish community was up in arms. I haven’t seen the movie but in no way did they act like Hannah’s role was okay. I think it was a very difficult book to write and the author handled it very well. I think a lot of the people that were involved in the Holocaust didn’t understand the magintude of what they were doing. Along with Hitler’s brainwashing. There were many that did understand and didn’t care. I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say anymore. Lol.
Has anybody read “We Need To Talk About Kevin?” I highly recommend it.
Valensi – point taken! Hee! 🙂
give it a rest kate, stop wingeing on about how you look
hey i just wanted to introduce myself 😛