What Kate Does Best
February 28, 2005
They can call her fat, they can knock her for cutting her hair, but Kate Winslet doesn’t care. She’s found the secret of true happiness. By Pippa Smith
There’s something about Kate Winslet that makes women love her. It could be her down-to-earth approach to life (when she says she doesn’t give a hoot about being an A-list celebrity, you believe her). It could be her passion for life and husband Jim Threapleton, or maybe it’s her honest attitude to her body. In a world of Calista Flockharts and Courtney Cox Arquettes, Kate’s more real figure has singled her out for ridicule in the press. Why, she’s not sure, but after standing her ground for a couple of years she says she’s bored of the issue. “I’m healthy and proud of how I loo,” she says with defiance.
Next month sees the release of Kate’s new movie, Holy Smoke, in shich she plays a woman brainwashed by a religious cult in India. The part was a refreshing change for the 24 year old, who has spent most of her film career in period costumes. “Out went the corsets,” she smiles. “I wear a sarong and T-shirt and go barefoot most of the time.”
“Because of the person I am, I won’t be knocked down - ever! They can say I’m fat, I’m thin, whatever and I’ll never stop”
It was only six years ago that you were working in a sandwich shop in north London. Do you ever stop and think how far you’ve come? Yes I do, I do. I look back and I think, “Wow, all these things that have happened to me,” And I still find myself so lucky that I have the choice, it’s not just a case that I have work, I have the choice about the work that I do and that is something I love and am so appreciative of. There are so many actors that I know who are really struggling to make ends meet, and are desperate to work. You know, they love their jobs and they want to do that. So I do look back and I think, “I can’t believe it.”
Do you like being a movie star? I care nothing about being a movie star. In many ways I feel I’m being arrogant and cynical when I say this, I’m baffled to be in the position I’m in. When I first thought about being an actress - which, I think, was when I was born - I didn’t plan or hope for this. I love acting and I just thought, “Well, I’ll just take each day as it comes and hope to always love it.” IN the last couple of years, with things being very busy in my life in terms of work, there have been days when I’ve asked, “Why on earth am I doing this job? It’s too much mental torture, I’m too tired. I never see my family.”
There have been rumours that some members of your family are jealous of your success. It’s hard for them, you know. My sister Anna was going to be the actress and suddenly little sister comes running along and speeding ahead. It does make me feel bad, I think “Christ, what can I do about this?” As offers come in, I still go, “Can’t I share some of thse with everybody else?”
Do you get upset when things are written about your body? I think it’s very sad that a lot has been written about my weight. I’ve been hurt by what’s been written. Look at me. Do I look fat to you? I think I look healthy and normal. And if I’m seen as fat, what are kids who are the same size going to think? They’ll start starving themselves. I’m healthy and I’m proud of how I look. You know, I am who I am, I’m healthy. I swim a mile every day. I’ll never be a stick insect, and I wouldn’t want to be either because it seems to me that a lot of people who are very thin are just really unhappy.
You were once anorexic, what helped pull you through that? I had a time in my life when I was about 19 and I was very thin and I wasn’t eating. I was anorexic for about six months. And I was so unhappy. Then someone said to me “Don’t you realise how much of your day you are spending thinking about your physical self?” It was so true. I realised the first thing I’d do in the morning was look in the mirror and think, “Oh, my bum looks big. Oh, my face is fat.” And I just felt, “what am I doing to my life? I can’t even think about others.” So I feel for people who are anorexic because they’re being scrwed up by what is said to be beautiful and successful - thin and pretty - and it’s bollocks. Because of the person I am I won’t be knocked down - ever! They can do what they like. They can say I’m fat, I’m thin, whatever, and I’ll never stop. I just won’t. I’ve got too much to do. I’ve too much to be happy about.
Is it true that you lost a high profile role in the Arnold Shcwarzenegger sience fiction thriller End of Days because you refused to lose weight? That’s not true, but if any role did rest on a question of weight, I’d walk away in a heartbeat.
You haven’t made a Hollywood film since Titanic. Why is that? The hardest thing about working in Los Angeles is that you’re immersed in a fantasy world all the time. It’s so goddamn safe. Everything is done for you. Your life outside your work stops for that period of time. Then, the shoot is over,. Suddenly, you have to wash your own knickers on the weekend. I always love to get back to that reality. Others don’t.
How do you fel about being seen as a sex symbol? It’s funny, because I don’t think of myself as any kind of sex symbol, and I don’t think I ever really have. Especially now I’m a married woman. I just don’t see myself as being one of those people.
How did you feel when America’s People magazine included you as one of their 50 Most Beautiful People in The World? Sometimes you just want to walk up to people and say, “Look, I far, I burp, I don’t necessarily shower every single day. I don’t have any plastic surgery and I don’t have caloric irrigation” It is such a head mess to me that people think becase you are a successful actor in films you are different to them.
In Holy Smoke, you have a love scene with Harvey Keitel, who plays a counsellor hired to de-programme you after you join the religious cult. What was that like? We had a real laugh doing it. The director, Jane Campion, and I rehearsed it first, Jane playing Harvey’s role. Then Harvey and I rehearsed it, in tracksuits, and then we got down to it in three takes. It was over in an hour. Jim and I had been apart for four months. It happenned that he arrived in Austrialia the week of the love scene. But it was jsut a normal day’s work and we had a laugh about it.
How does your husband Jim feel about your love scenes in general? He knows that I won’t stand for scenes where the sex is just gratuitous. I’ve always felt that if it needs to be done I’ll do it. It was to be there for a reason though. But it’s fair to say that since I married him, I would think twice. Jim totally understand that it’s part of my job and, frankly, when you are doing a love scene you forget you haven’t go any clothes on because it all becomes completely technical. The point is, a marriage is based on trust and if you have that, then you have everything.
You met Jim on the set of Hideous Kinky, when he was the third assistant director. How did the romance begin? You know, I have to be honest and say that it was love at first sight, actually. It was. All of a sudden he showed up on set, and my actual reaction was, “Oh no”. Because I saw this wonderful person, and I just knew that something was going to happen. Now when we talk about it, he says he felt the same thing. And he told me when he first saw me he actually turned his back, because he could feel that something was going to happen, and he didn’t want me to see his reaction on his face. So, in fact, the frist view I had of my husband was his bum and his back! Which was nice.
How do you manage to spend time together when you’re both so busy? I would love to be able to repeat the Paul and Linda McCartney situation, where they spent, I think, about three nights apart over a 20-year period. We’re never going to be able to do that, but we’ll try. It’s probably unrealistic, really, because there will be times when I’m on a film away from Jim and he’ll be working somewhere else, but we’ll try to plan it so we each do a project one after the other, so we can be together. We had four months apart when I was doing Holy Smoke in Austrailia and we don’t want a repeat of that. It was terrible, really hard, being apart. We just phoned all day and all night so I didn’t have a full night’s sleep when I was in Austrailia at all.
Any plans for children yet? We do want children and we will have children, but not yet. We want more time together before we think about that. The rumours have been rife but we have years ahead of us. So we won’t be hearing the patter of tiny feet for a while yet.
How has being married changed you? Jim is very into my hairstyles. He’s always telling me, “Go shorter, go shorter.” He thinks short is funky. But he doesn’t care if I have it all shaved off or wear it longer, just as long as I’m happy. Sometimes we’re running so late I have to ask him to help out. He’s very handy with a brush and hairdrier.
How else has he changed your life? I think if anything, I’ve chilled out a hell of a lot because of my wonderful husband. He loves me for me. It’s just brilliant.
Source: Shine Magazine | February Issue
Scans: Janalynn
Posed in: News > Interviews > Holy Smoke > Magazine
