`Gale'-force Winslet is tough
February 17, 2003

by Stephen Schaefer

Kate Winslet, who stars as an investigative reporter opposite Kevin Spacey's death row inmate in ``The Life of David Gale,'' calls herself ``lucky'' to be an in-demand actress.

``I sound like a cracked record when I say this,'' the 27-year-old British actress said as she rolled a cigarette. ``I feel so lucky I'm in a position as an actress where I can choose to work or not work and what I do.

``I have two sisters, both actresses, and they are nowhere near that position. My older sister works heaps of theater and would love to do film, and those opportunities have never come 'round for her. My younger sister has a child and is (doing that) now, so I know how lucky I am.''

Yes, she's lucky. But Winslet has paid a price for her celebrity. For one thing, her weight seems to be a subject that has fascinated the press since she became an international star with ``Titanic.''

``It's absurd, really,'' said Winslet, who recently made headlines when her body was digitally downsized from 130 pounds to around 100 for a GQ magazine cover. ``The reality is, maybe all this focus on me and my figure and tra-la-la, maybe it's my own fault.

``Simply because, after I did `Titanic,' I just kind of realized there was a lot of pressure on women to be a certain size to be successful as an actor. I thought, `Isn't that insane! I'm normal, and look at me and I'm comfortable how I am.' And I came out in an interview and said that. I said, `I'm doing well at the thing I'm doing and I'm not starving myself,' and from then on it's plagued me.''

Winslet said she suffered an emotional collapse last summer, when the British tabloids charged her with sloughing off the care of her daughter, Mia, to party with her partner, Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning British film and theater director (``American Beauty'' and Broadway's ``Cabaret'').

``The press can be really upsetting and really damaging,'' Winslet said. ``The British press for a long time were `Our Kate,' `Down-to-earth Kate' and `Wonderful British Rose.' Then suddenly, I was the bitch from hell and that's a hard pill to swallow; we all want people to like us and be respected and enjoy our lives.

``There was a time last year where it was just difficult, because of the press, for me to enjoy my life. What they were doing, it was just lies,'' Winslet said.

``That's what I didn't like. They just made stuff up. If it was true, that's OK. But none of it was true and that's so outrageously cruel.''

Most frustrating, Winslet said, was that she felt she couldn't respond.

``The problem is, in England if you try to do that, they make it worse for you,'' she said. ``Shall I tell you what it feels like? It reminds me of being the fat kid at school, doing nothing wrong and being bullied and being unable to fight back. It reminds me of that feeling and it's really hurtful. I cried a lot.''

Source: The Boston Herald