Kate Winslet covers the latest issue of the Hollywood Reporter to promote Ammonite, the costume drama about fossils and lesbians (you can see the trailer here). In a normal year, a period film about lesbians playing with fossils on the beach would be awards-baity. But this year has been turned upside down, so who knows. THR does note that the film is being distributed and promoted by Neon, the company behind the successful Oscar campaign for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite. Hilariously, in this interview Kate Winslet pretends like she’s not down for yet another Oscar campaign. Like she hasn’t been one of the biggest Oscar campaigners in the past two decades! She also chats about her lockdown, how she doesn’t understand TikTok and more. Some highlights:
Attending the virtual Toronto Film Festival: “I can be barefoot and I don’t have to put a dress on and feel sick. So it’s awesome. I can have my glass of wine just out of frame.”
She was working in Philadelphia in March & she knew what to do because she worked on ‘Contagion’: “People thought I was crazy because I had been walking around [Philadelphia] wearing a mask for weeks, going into the grocery store and wiping everything down with isopropyl alcohol and wearing gloves. Then all of a sudden March 13 came around, and people were like, ‘F–k, where do I get one of those masks?'”
She has to go back to Philly next month to finish the film: “Now that I’m going to have to go back to work, I’m like, ‘Oh f–k, I’ve forgotten how to act.’ It will be with some extraordinary back-to-work protocols, which are great. But when you’re an actor in a film or a TV piece, social distancing is obviously sometimes just not possible, based on the scene.”
She doesn’t campaign?! Per THR: “She largely eschews doing press and avoids the awards-season circuit of panels, parties and tastemaker screenings (“I don’t campaign,” says Winslet).
Finally winning an Oscar: “It was the sixth time I could have lost, right? ” she says of her Reader win in 2009. “I have it at home. It’s awesome. The kids have fun with it. It is the stuff of dreams. And that little dream came true for me right there, and you just move on. You just go back to the hard work. It’s just a f–king Oscar at the end of the day.”
She keeps clear of social media. “I don’t even really know what TikTok is. It’s so much harder now for young actors because social media meddles with their natural progression of self-esteem. I am so blessed that I missed all that. We didn’t have to keep pleasing, feeding, likes, dislikes. We could just figure out who we were.”
On the fame she had post-Titanic: “I was really freaked out, to be honest. I was 21. I wasn’t ready for fame. And it’s not that I was pushing it away or rejecting it. Of course, I felt enormously grateful, privileged, proud, all those things, but I didn’t know enough as an actor. I still felt like I was really learning. I was nominated for an Academy Award, but that doesn’t mean f–king sh-t. If you haven’t got the chops and you don’t believe in yourself, you’re going to do crap work.”
On working with Roman Polanski, Woody Allen & Harvey Weinstein: Asked whether she can corroborate the accusations against those men or others, Winslet refuses to call out anyone by name but adds, “It was very f–king real. Casting couches existed, yeah. All I can tell you is I was safe. I made sure I was. But this is a different time, and we’re [now] protected by the stories of the brave people who have spoken out, and we have to look after one another, and we will not be disrespected, degraded, marginalized and undermined any f–king more. That’s it. We’re done. Boom!”
I’m always slightly annoyed when an actor goes all out, full-throttle baby-kissing, glad-handing, oversaturated-media Oscar campaign, then the actor wins and is suddenly too cool for school and winning an Oscar doesn’t mean anything, really. Several of them have done that, but in Winslet’s case… look, she’s a total pro when it comes to campaigning. I have no doubt that the studios are always like “can you 50 interviews and 20 TV appearances in a week” and she’s like “sure, what else do you need?” But she’s doing all of that knowing it’s part of yet another Oscar campaign. Like right now. Except this year, she’ll probably do it all virtually. We’re going to be hearing about fossils and lesbians for MONTHS.
Cover courtesy of THR, additional photo courtesy of Backgrid.
I like her as an actress but she bugs – she tries so hard, so hard to be Emma Thompson. She’s not. Emma Thompson is insanely talented and a bit batsh!t – love me some ET.
Emma is her mentor and friend. I am not gonna knock her for trying to emulate a career like Thompson’s.
I think she’s a truly great actress and I love watching her performances, but she’s always bugged me too. I remember back when Titanic hit it big and she & the cast were on Oprah. She was SO hyper and OTT. She’s calmed down over the years but, yeah…she still seems kind of try hard.
Emma Thompson is possibly my fav celeb. Kate, as time goes on, seems very very unpleasant. I also haven’t heard great things about people who have interacted with her either.
Always, always, disliked her. She has absolutely zero class. When she was “campaigning” to get the Titanic job, she sent a naked picture of herself to James Cameron, saying “I’m your rose.” Imagine if a male sent a naked picture of himself to a female director? She lies about everything — from having a c-section, to having work done on her face; she insults other people then defends herself by saying “I was just taking the piss out of them.” She’s on stage hugging and kissing that child rapist, Roman Polanski. Everything about her repulses me.
But hey, I’m just taking the piss out of her!
You said it so I will just ride shot gun on this comment. I think she embodies that English attitude that we’ve discussed on here that may have affected Meghan while in Britain.
As an actress she is terrific and brings something different to the characters she plays and she hasn’t turned me off to the point yet where I actively avoid her films. Avoiding her interviews helps me to tolerate her on screen I think.
I feel the same way about her. Love her onscreen. Offscreen, not so much. I try to avoid her interviews too so I don’t get annoyed when I see her in movies.
Another dumpster fire of an interview. She made sure she was safe from predators, did she?
The Oscar thing…. whatever. She wanted it. They all do. It’s like wealthy people telling you in all sincerity that money doesn’t make you happy. Money can sure as hell help make you happy or otherwise you’d give it all away.
“All I can tell you is I was safe. I made sure I was.”
This really bugs me every time someone says it. So HW didn’t force himself into your hotel room? Or manipulate you into a situation where he could assault you because of the power imbalance between his position and yours? The other two preferred children so this clearly doesn’t apply to them.
It’s such a covert way of victim blaming and it’s really disturbing. Why couldn’t she say, “I was safe. I was fortunate to never be put in a position so many other actresses were.” The women who were assaulted by HW and others weren’t assaulted because they didn’t protect themselves; they were overpowered and manipulated.
It’s really disturbing and it seems to be the line many actresses use to….not excuse, but explain, maybe?…Weinstein. She could have just said “I was safe” and left it at that. the “I made sure I was” bit is what pushes it into victim blaming for me.
Yep
Definitely have issue when celebs do this…
I think their viewpoint is: “If I didn’t experience it, then it’s not my fault for not doing anything about it/calling it out”… that’s my read anyway
Okay, Kate 🙄
Meh.
She may not attend every party and screening, but she certainly campaigns on some level. They all do. It’s fine. It’s an honor and can have a good impact on your career, who wouldn’t want it?
I have always loved her as an actress, but her willingness to work with the Woody Allens of the industry have soured me on her as a person.
“he certainly campaigns on some level.”
IMHO, It is part of an actor’s job to promote the films they are in.
Exactly, campaigning is part of your job!
It’s professional, esp when you are the face of a project that tens to hundreds of people have worked on!
My understanding is you aren’t even considered for a nomination if you don’t campaign a least a little bit, and often part of their contractual agreements with the studio make this part of the deal. You have to play the game. Every single actor who is well known today plays the game to a certain extent, even if it’s not obvious.
I’m very excited for Ammonite. I’ve grown to really dislike Kate Winslet just through the sh!t she says highlighted in these posts, but I love Saoirse Ronan and I think it looks like a good movie. There’s a lot of “normal life” I’m fine without, but god I’m going to miss my traditional award season.
I love Saoirse, and do still like Kate’s work, so I’ll watch this at some point.
And I agree, they all do it. It’s part of the process and the business. Some go a bit above and beyond though, and I guess Kate is comparing herself to them, but it’s not really accurate for her to say she doesn’t campaign at all.
I just don’t get the big woo about Kate Winslet … never have. There is a weird self-entitled ‘smelling her own farts, above it all’ smugness about her that reminds me a lot of Kelly Osbourne. Perhaps a smugness built around a lack of self esteem in her youth? Not sure I’m explaining this clearly, but there’s just something about Mrs. Rocknroll that .. yeah.
She had one of the most over-the-top Oscar acceptance speeches in recently memory where she even admitted as a child she pretended her shampoo bottle was an Oscar but now it’s not a big deal? Lolol. Everything Kate does is a OTT. Like her tears of joy when DiCaprio won (his Oscar, which apparently is no big deal).
This! She had been after that Oscar her entire career and she won’t say no to a second one
Well, she talks about how excited she was when she won, but at the end of the day, its just an Oscar. I think that’s understandable. When something really exciting happens, you still wake up the next morning and you’re still you.
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are, in my opinion, over-rated and over-actors.
Ronan, at least, sounds like a kind person so it pains me to write this.
However Winslet is a pain in the a** and obviously ended up to be one of those people who just *knew* how to handle a pandemic.
“Ammonite, the costume drama about fossils and lesbians” should be the tagline for the film because, god help me, I feel that is exactly what they went for with this choice of actresses.
Where is she from? What a potty mouth. I dont know how to put this without sounding weird but I have noticed some english actors have no filter when it comes to the cursing,is it an east end thing?
I can and do curse with the best of them, but in an interview I would try to contain myself. I think she’s trying to sound cool and she’s just not.
Cursing isn’t as big a deal in the UK. Hold onto your pearls.
She is one of most blatant award season campaigners At least Hathaway has the decency to own her thirst.
Lmao right??? I hope she disnt say it with a straight face. During her Reader ‘campaign’ she was latching onto Leo Dicap and mentioning him in her speeched leading up to her win. She knew people would go crazy for the pair of them and really want her to win just to see more.
Wow, this whole interview is kind of gross.
The ‘who me, Oscar campaign?’ but reminds me of the ‘Black Swan’ campaign that really soured me on Natalie Portman. I distinctly remember a radio interview before the film’s release where she mentioned her body double / dancer who had Portman’s face mapped onto her, Sarah Lane. Then when campaign season was really heating up someone had decided that the narrative would be that Portman became a prima ballerina through pure force of Acting, so ‘Sarah Lane? Never heard of her.’
So she worked with Woody Allen because she thinks he’s a great guy? Okay then.
She’s gross and has gotten grosser with every passing day.
I think Kate is a great actress. Honestly though, I think some of her best work was her early work; Sense and Sensibility, Heavenly Creatures, Titanic.
I lol on anything she says about campaigning- she hustled hard for her Oscar. Also The Reader was not a good movie nor was it a good role for her but she received it more for her body of work.
As a person though she seems kind of terrible? Her response on Weinstein and and Woody Allen are just awful and tone deaf. Also she seems totally self-involved. I saw her do an interview event for TIFF in the spring and rarely have I ever seen a polished actor/professional talk all over an interviewer. It was certainly something.
The charges against Woody Allen were dropped. The liar Mia Farrow even wanted to work with WA again. He declined.
Charges were dropped because the prosecutor did not want a very fragile, vulnerable Dylan to have to testify, not because they didn’t have a case. What Mia did or did not do does not change the fact that Dylan has always adamantly stated that she was abused. Believe children, believe women.
She did an episode on Extras as herself playing a nun in the Holocaust in which her character says the only reason people make Holocaust films is to get an Oscar. And then she won an Oscar for a Holocaust film.
Winslet was safe because she was protected. She started working at a very young age and there was buzz about her from the very beginning. So all the predators knew it was ‘hands off’ when it came to Winslet. There were lots of other young women to abuse, so it was no big deal. But for her to pretend that SHE had something to do with why those men didn’t prey on her is a bit much.
ok, Hanna, from Below Deck.
I think she meant she doesn’t really campaign for herself. Its about “being a team player.” If you want to keep working you have to do what it takes to help a film succeed. These days most Oscar nominated films are little indie darlings that don’t have a prayer of making money unless they win some serious Oscars. She’s done the whole nomination thing, she’s won her award, but she’ll keep doing the Oscar press because the films need her to and she knows, as an older actress now, that reputation is as important as talent when it comes to continuing her career.
It’s funny how you can like someone as an actress like Kate, but not like the real person. I cannot stand her intereviews or in person. She is so irritating for some reason. And if she is trying to be like Emma Thompson, that’s a miss – Emma is funny, self-deprecating and delightful – all things Kate is not. She takes herself way to seriously and there is NO way she doesn’t want another Oscar at her “advanced for Hollywood” age. She campaigned for it before but now it’s the “oh it means nothing in life” campaign so we think she is all humble. Not buying it.