Translation By: PHILIPPE C.

The phenomenal success of "Titanic" has made her a star. Now she is adulated, spied on, judged. One year after, she comes back on the screens, in "Hideous Kinky", tanned, having a hard time, and mother of two little girls. This time, it's Said Taghmaoui, who will rescue her.

INTERVIEW

As she didn't know yet if "Titanic" was going to sink or flood everything, Kate Winslet, went to shoot a little british film in Morocco. A combination of poetry and exoticism, directed by the scottish Gilles MacKinnon. It's an adaptation of the auto-biographical novel of Esther Freud, "Hideous Kinky".

"Hideous Kinky", relates the story of a young mother who leaves London and a fickle lover in the 70's, to settle in Marrakesh with her two girls. The film is narrated "through the eyes" of a 6 year old girl. There, she will discover love, spirituality and freedom. Since this film, Kate Winslet, has made the film, "Holy Smoke" in India, directed by Jane Campion.

"Titanic" is now a worldwide success, and the spotlight is all on her...However, the "tornado" of "Titanic", doesn't seem to have unstabilized this 23 year old actress.

We met her in London, five days before her wedding to Jim Threapleton, one of the assistant-directors of the film, and a couple of hours before the worldwide premiere of "Hideous Kinky" in the London Film Festival. Simple and serene. Merely her "pathological" consummation of "hand-made" cigarettes reveal a very understandible anxiety. It is a fact that many people will go to see the film "only" because she plays in it. A meeting with a star who considers that "acting" rhyms with "hard working".

Journalist: An American magazine (Movieline) has just named you as the "most talented actress of your generation"

Kate: (very touched) Oh! That's very kind!

Journalist: In your opinion, what's your principal quality as an actress?

Kate: Oh my God! I don't know. I work a lot, and above all, I tackle each of my roles in the same way. I don't worry about the budget or the nationality of the film. I think this is my asset.

Journalist: How do you decide to make a 25 million (French Francs -about $5 Million) budget film (very small budget), just after the biggest super production of all time?

Kate: I was very tired after the shooting of "Titanic", and I needed to revive myself/ to rest. I knowingly decided to make a "small" film, this time I wanted to know each member of the crew on the set.

Journalist: What did you like in Hideous Kinky (book)?

Kate: I was 17 when I read the book of Esther Freud, and I liked it a lot. When I heard that Billy MacKinnon (collaborator of Jane Campion) did a scenario with the novel, I jumped for joy!. Then, his brother, Gilles MacKinnon, got involved naturally in the project. We met. In this time, I hadn't seen any of his films. Since, I have seen "Small Faces" 5 times!

Journalist: And how was your collaboration with Gilles MacKinnon?

Kate: Gilles ia s gentle and open minded man. He visualizes each scene, leaves enough freedom for the actors to to make some suggestions. He permits us to show our emotions. I really confident. And the little girls (Bella Riza and Carrie Mullan) adored him also. That was very important because they (the 2 girls) are the key to the story.

Journalist: Why don't you make more fils with english directors? (Everybody talks about the "british film revival").

Kate: I want to do some, yet I hope my decision to do "Hideous Kinky" will show my inclination. I don't want my compatriots to think that I am going to run away to the US. I want people to think that I am really part of my country's cinema industry.

Journalist: What did you like in Julia's character, the heroine of "Hideous Kinky"?

Kate: This woman is free, with no constraints at all. I imagined the role just like I had to sit on a deck-chair, and watch the sky.

Journalist: A less stressful role, an ideal shooting, a serene director: so many changes compared to "Titanic"!

Kate: That's true. Acting with children makes you improvise, and that helps you to relax a lot. The girls never ceased to surprise me. They were running in all directions, doing silly things but appropiate for their actions. (LOL)

Journalist: I remember you said that one night on the shoot, you helped one of these little girls to cry in front of the camera...(STUDIO mag No. 132).

Kate: Yes, and this night, I thought that maybe could become a theatre coach for children. Bella ("Bea" in the film) was very concerned about everything I said to her about our situation in the movie. And as we were very close to eachother, I knew that if I started to cry, she would also...she was so distressed that I thought (a tearful tone): "Oh nooo! It's not possible! I've forced a child to cry!" but it was good for the scene.

Journalist: When did you decide to become an actress?

Kate: I always wanted to be an actress, as far as I remember. When I was 5, I was already acting the Virgin Mary in the living Nativity scene at school. I loved that! I even became Mary! (LOL). It's probably during this time when I started to plan and organize my life in regard to my dream: to become an actress.

Journalist: Julia, your character in the film, really exists (Bernardine, the of painter Lucian Freud, and the mother of Esther Freud), and you have met her. Did this make you act differently?

Kate: Yes, Bernardine helped and encouraged me. I wanted to know what her life was like as a child, to know what kind of education she had, for me to re-create her childhood. Each time I play a new character, I do this. But in this case, the big difference was in the fact that I had a living model.

Journalist: Would you like to be a mother like her?

Kate: Yes, of course, I think about it...but not for the time being...

Journalist: No, I wanted to say: Would you like to raise your children as she did, in total freedom, without any convention or restrictions?

Kate: Ah, ok! Yes, it's something I really appreciated about her. In certain respects, the Julia-Bernardine character resembles my mother. I like these kind of women who consider children like "little adults", and allow them the choice of becoming what they want to be; and never say "don't do this, don't do that...".

Journalist: Let's talk about Said Taghmaoui, who plays Bilal, the Moroccan you fall in love with in the film.

Kate: Said is a very good actor, and a very kind man as well. It was so much fun working with him! He is a little like Bilal, his character in the film, very "lively", with a lot of energy to spare. We were very friendly during the shoot. I like to be in harmony with my partner. If something is going wrong between 2 actors, I'm sure this can come across on the screen. But thank God! I never had this kind of problem with actors.

Journalist: When we met you last time on during the shoot in Morocco, you said you hadn't seen the film "Le Haine" ("Hatred"). Have you seen it now?

Kate: Yes I have, and I adored it!

Journalist: Is it the first time you act with a non-english speaking actor?

Kate: Said speaks very good English, you know. A lot of vocabulary. Sometimes his pronounciation was not very good, and I corrected him, and he said "Sank you! Sank you!" LOL. He tried to teach me some french also, but I was a very bad student, LOL.

Then, her agent Robert Garlock, brutally interrupted the interview: "I'm very sorry but Kate has a telephone-meeting with the US". The day after, by Kate's request, we met again to continue the interview.

Journalist: With the very big success of "Titanic", you are extremely in demand now. How has your life changed?

Kate: To be honest with honest, my life "from day to day" is the same as before. Now, I have more professional proposals, that's all. I receive many scripts. I consider that my celebrity is not interfering with the freedom of my choices.

Journalist: Did the "Titanic-mania" affect you, as it did Leonardo? Do you receive many letters, attention, fan declerations?

Kate: Everything at the same time!! (LOL). There are also many rumours about me, about my private life, and this can be very embarrassing, sometimes disagreeable, because I would like to keep that part of my life intimate. But it's ok. I just need time to get used to this situation, to realize that now, it will always be like this.

Journalist: What did bother you the most with the success of "Titanic"?

Kate: The criticism from the press journalists about m, hurt me a lot, especially when they were nasty and not justified, or focussed on a detail of my personality. In England, young actors with a regular job (role) and the chance to occupy a nice place like mine, are very few. But the press, the Anglo-axon press in particular, insist to systematically critisize those who are sussessful. Why do journalists do that? I would think that the press would be proud of what the country produces and creates. But it's not the case, and that's a real pity.

Journalist: Do you include paparazzi in this harmful press?

Kate: No, I don't care about them. I try to live normally. After all, a photo is nothing more than a photo, that's all!

Journalist: What did you appreciate the most with the success of "Titanic"?

Kate: The very good reaction of the public, of course. Leo and I really wanted the audience to believe in our love story. The most important part for us, is the fact that the public has been touched by the film for the reasons we expected. This is much more important then the millions of tickets sold. It's magic!

Journalist: Curiously, you've just made 2 films about spirituality: "Hideous Kinky" with the soul searching, and "Holy Smoke" with the sects and Hinduism. Is it a coincidence?

Kate: Yes, it is a coincidence. Besides, because of that, I did hesitate a little before agreeing to make "Holy Smoke". Curiously, those two films have revealed a lot of things to me. However, the two characters are so different! In "Holy Smoke", I play the role of a 19 year old girl who finds her guru in India. Her parents think she has been enlisted in a sect, and they force her to come back home to Australia; they introduce her to Harvey Keitel, who plays a kind of therapist, specialised in "brain-washing". But things don't evolve exactly like they were expecting. I can't tell you more now...

Journalist: How did you meet Jane Campion?

Kate: We had been introduced during the '97 Cannes Film Festival (she was there for "Hamlet" w/ Kenneth Brannagh). I had read the cript during the shooting of "Hideous Kinky", and this is very unusual for me. Most of the time when I am doing a film, I don't want to think about the next one. But my agent pushed me, because he knew that the project was evolving quickly, and I absolutelly had to be in this film. So, I had read it, and I had been astonished by the story. Then, at the beginning of '98 I had been to New York, to audition with Jane. We talked a lot. And in May, I went to India, to meet a guru and prepare myself for the role.

Journalist: What's your next project?

Kate: I don't know. Nothing for the moment (only 5 weeks since the shhot ended in "Holy Smoke"). And I want to rest. I don't want to "pile" films too quickly. This wouldn't be healthy, I wouldn't have a "life". It's very important to be able to stop, and live, breathe, think...just do normal things!

Journalist: You are said to be the fiancée of "King Kong", in the remake which will be realised by Peter Jackson?...

Kate: (flabbergasted) My God!! To be honest with you, I haven't talked to Peter for a long time! And I know he is very busy now with the shooting of "The Lord of the Rings". So, we'll see.