A transcription of Jay Leno talking with Kate Winslet on The Tonight Show.

Jay: Welcome back. Kate Winslet is on her way out. Comedian Nick Swardson is here as well. And Earl Scruggs will perform with Dwight Yoakam. That's cool having Earl here.

Kevin: Very cool.

Jay: He's a legendary guy. So that will be neat.

[ Cheers ] Great shows this week. Tomorrow, Robin Williams will be here. Thursday, Michelle Pfeiffer and Chuck Berry, Little Richard too. Friday, Debra Messing and the Oakland Raider's Jerry Rice. So good, what do we have tonight? Oh! All right, my first guest two-time oscar-nominated actress whose films include Sense and Sensibility and Titanic. She's getting wonderful reviews for her performance in Iris, which is in theaters right now. Please welcome Kate Winslet.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: You look great.

Kate: Thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: Nice to see you again.

Kate: Now, I'm beginning. I'm beginning this interview.

Jay: Yes.

Kate: Show me your teeth.

Jay: My teeth are horrible because I'm half Scotch.

Kate: Well, you made a horrible comment about the British not having any toothbrushes.

[ Laughter ]

Kate: I take great offense. Don't you think that's fair enough?

Jay: Well, you have lovely teeth. Now, you have to admit now, the English have many strong characteristics.

Kate: No, I'm not admitting to anything.

Jay: But tooth decay is --

[ Laughter ]

There's nothing funnier to me than, [ With british accent ] "Hello, mate. How are ya, love?"

[ Laughter ]

Kate: But what first-hand experience do you have of this dreadful dental hygiene?

Jay: My own family. My mother's from Scotland.

[ With scottish accent ] "Hello, Jay. How are you?"

[ Laughter ]

Kate: Well, maybe it's just your family that don't have toothbrushes.

[ Laughter ]

Jay: You know, that's probably it. That's probably it. See, you're true a patriot.

Kate: How are you?

Jay: But I said lovely things about you. I said they defended us. God bless 'em. You didn't hear the god bless England part.

Kate: No, I did. Thank you, I heard it all.

Jay: Now, how have you been? Are you good?

Kate: Very well, thank you.

Jay: Because you don't come here that often.

Kate: No, I don't. Well, I do live at home and I have a baby.

Jay: I know that.

Kate: So I'm at home a lot. I was here. I was in Texas actually before Christmas shooting a movie.

Jay: Okay.

Kate: So I was sort of over on this side of the ocean.

Jay: But you were here for the Golden Globes.

Kate: I was.

Jay: You were nominated. Now, it looks like such a party. Were you --?

[ Makes chugging sound ] Did you have a few?

Kate: No, no. No, I didn't.

Jay: Because the English, you know, they drink.

[ Laughter ]

Kate: Oh, do they really? Oh, do they really, Jay?

Jay: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

[ Laughter ]

Kate: Anything else about the English?

Jay: Oh, the English, they drink.

Kate: No, I didn't. I couldn't because I was presenting the film clip of Lord of the Rings which came right at the end of the ceremony, so I was drinking water and drank too much water and desperately needed to pee right before I had to go and present.

[ Laughter ]

Kate:So I go to the ladies room, and there's an enormous queue. And I thought, "Oh no, and I go into the gents."

Jay: Oh, you go into the men's room?

Kate: Oh, no, I did. I went into the men's room. Oh, sorry, sorry, not looking. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Like this. [covers eyes] So ,yes.

Jay: Were the men at all shocked? And you were using the urinal, which is the worst part.

[ Laughter ]

Kate: But no, when you've got to go, you have got to go. So I had to go. I had to go.

Jay: You see, women can do that. If a man said, "I have to go and barged into the ladies room, "Hey! Out!"

[ Laughter ] He would be arrested. Men would be, "Oh, look at that one, oh, sorry."

[ Laughter ] It's not a problem.

Kate: No, I didn't look, though. I didn't look.

Jay: Women never look.

Kate: No, I didn't.

Jay: How did you get in if you don't look. You have to look.

Kate: Well, I didn't.

Jay: Oh, you didn't. All right.

Kate: No, I didn't.

Jay: Now, did you get your gift basket? We had Sarah Jessica Parker here last night. And she was complaining.

Kate: No. I've heard about this gift basket.

Jay: Did you get yours? What was in yours?

Kate: I didn't get one.

Jay: You got screwed too out of your gift basket?

[ Laughter ]

Kate: I didn't get a gift basket. I only heard about this today. And I thought, well, there was no mention of a gift basket to me.

Jay: Wow.

Kate: I haven't seen this thing. Do we know what was in it?

Jay: Apparently, all sorts of goodies, massage things and women smelly candle things.

Kate: Well, who can we call, Jay? This is outrageous.

Jay: I don't know. I will find out who actually did do it, because somebody has got your gift basket.

Kate: Somebody's got it.

Jay: Somebody has got your gift basket with your name on it.

Kate: I'll have to hunt them down.

Jay: Well, we'll find out. I think there was a toothbrush in it, if I'm not mistaken.

[ Laughter ] We'll be right back. We'll have more with Kate right after this. Be right back.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: Welcome back. Talking with Kate Winslet, star of Iris. Since you were last here. How old is the baby now?

Kate: She's 16 months.

Jay: What's her name?

Kate: Mia.

Jay: Oh, that's very pretty.

Kate: Yes, she's very sweet, she's adorable. She's quite the little actress, I'm afraid.

Jay: How did you pick that name?

Kate: I just -- I don't know. I sort of had a list of names that I really liked. And Mia wasn't on the list. And when she was born, I was -- it was odd. I sort of wished that she could talk, because it was almost as if she had a name, I just had to figure out what it was.

Jay: Right.

Kate: It took about four or five days, and I suddenly went,

Jay: Okay, so for four or five days, the kid is going, "Hey, hey."

Kate: Poor little thing.

Jay: What was the next name closest?

Kate: The next name closest --

Jay: One you had on the list?

Kate: What was another one on the list? I haven't got asked that one before. Another one on the list was Holly.

Jay: Not too many Hollys.

Kate: Ellie was on the list.

Jay: Ellie is too cute.

Kate: And Honey was on the list. I know, I know. And Mia, her second name is actually Honey. Mia Honey. I'm not sure how she's going to feel about it when she's older.

Jay: Well, Mia honey isn't that bad.

Kate: It's cute.

Jay: Like Freebird or one of these hippie names.

Kate: Not too bad.

Jay: Is she walking now?

Kate: She's running, actually. She's running around and doing a lot of little animal noises. "What does the lion do?" She goes "raaahh." "What does a snake do?" "Ssssss." "And little mouse?" "eeek." Very sweet. Then I have, "Mia, did you have a nice day?" "Ssut up." Well, I'm hoping that she's not actually saying shut up. But it sounds a little bit like shut up.

Jay: Gee, I wonder where she could have picked that up from.

Kate: Not me, really not me.

Jay: Well, who else --

Kate: Well, I don't know.

Jay: Have you ever said shut up?

Kate: I do say it.

Jay: A-ha.

Kate: But I don't say any of those naughty things in front of her.

Jay: The kids are listening all the time.

Kate: I know, but that's why you have to be careful. Especially now, because she's picking up on everything now.

Jay: Oh, really?

Kate: Yes, she's picking up on a lot of things. She's certainly picking up on mommy's acting. She's quite the little actress and very rhythmical. We're a big fan of Destiny's Child.

Jay: Oh, is that right?

Kate: Yes, and teletubbies. I'm in gap with her the other day and she's like this --

[ Laughter ] [Kate dancing like Mia did.]

Kate: Destiny's child.

Jay: She picked that up from mommy.

Kate: She didn't quite pick it up from mommy. She's pretty funny. She's really great, actually.

Jay: Now, you have a singing career, too. This is new to me, I did not -- I wasn't aware of this.

Kate: Well, I don't have a singing career. This isn't entirely true. But I did release a single. But, I have to say I only did it for charity. What it was, is recorded -- I was the voice for an animated cartoon, A Christmas Carol. And the producers in the company that made the movie put a lot of music to it. And they came back and they said, "Listen, we've actually written the character that you play a song, and we were wondering, would you like to sing it?" I said, "Okay, I'll give it a go" -- kind of thing. But made it very clear if they didn't like what I did, they should go and get Celine or whoever to do it.

Jay: Celine, that was your next choice.

[ Laughter ]

If you were not available, "Celine Dion, perhaps, can do it."

Kate: Really, ask anybody else, please. Just spare me the embarrassment. So anyway -- I did this song, and they were all quite pleased with it. They said, "Ee want to release it as a single." And I said, "I don't really want to do that." Then, I thought, well, it could do some good for charity. So it raised money for children's cancer charities.

Jay: That's very good. Did it do well? How well --

Kate: It went straight in at number six on the uk charts. Didn't make it to number one, but then I did have tough competition from Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.

Jay: Oh, that's right, from Moulin Rouge.

Kate: I was happy to stand down.

Jay: That's interesting, you didn't really want to be a singer, but "How did it do?" "Oh, damn that Robbie Williams." You get that competitive --

Kate: I know you do, you do.

Jay: Tell people about Iris. Because this is different -- not different for you. Titanic was the big laddie da. Movie of the -- biggest movie, ever. But then you -- I always like these quirky, independent little movies.

Kate: I like doing little things. The big things are fun as well, but the little things are fun as well. So Iris is a story about -- the life story, really, of Dame Iris Murdoch who was an English novelist, and very, very successful and tragically died of Alzheimer's in 1999. But, it's really a story about her life and her love story, really. So, she had this wonderful relationship with her husband, John Bayley, who was with her and nursed her so on, through the last days of her life. And she just had an extraordinary life. She was an incredible woman. She was very strong. She was bisexual, a little bit risque, very modern for her time, as well. She really sort of said what she believed in. A good old feisty part. When you're asked to play the young Judi Dench, you don't say no. Because half the movie is a flashback, so it's the young Iris and the young John Bayley and then the older Iris and John Bayley are played by Jim Broadbent and Judi. So, you don't say no to that. It was a lot of fun, a lot of fun.

Jay: What is this scene we're gonna see, what is this set up here?

Kate: [Looks to see which one it is.] She's basically telling him that he's the one.

Jay: Take a look.

[Clip from Iris.]

John: You must feel it. I don't belong in your world.

Iris: Have I told you about some of my friends? The people in my past, of my heart, and not. There was a friend who was a student with me. He was not the first person I went to bed with. That was Harry. Then there was Roger, who wanted to marry me. And Oscar who said he couldn't live without me. And Tom, who far too clearly could.

John: Is that all? I mean, roughly? What about the friends in your other world?

Iris: You know more about me than anyone on earth. You are my world.

[End of clip. Applause.]

Kate: Yes. This is my non-makeup movie. They wouldn't even let me get my hands on an eyelash curler.

Jay: You looked beautiful there. You have beautiful skin. What the English lack in teeth they make up for in skin.

[ Light laughter ]

Kate: We did laugh bout the fact that this was not a pretty film, particularly, for any of this. Because Iris Murdoch notoriously wore no makeup, didn't use a hairbrush that often, and had rather questionable dress sense. And so, we joke about this. Poor Judi, in iris' later years, was ho on and one shoe off and, yet, no use of a toothbrush.

Jay: There, I rest my case. You're getting what? You are going to the "L.A. Critics Awards."

Kate: Yes. I won the "L.A. Film Critics Award," which I'm really --

Jay: Forget this silly little Golden Globe thing, this is the one to win.

[ Applause ] Kate, thank you very much. Please come back. Say hi to Mia. Be right back with Nick Swardson right after this. Kate Winslet.

[Kate motions to question as to moving to the other couch and Jay directs her to go off stage and actually walks her off the stage chatting all the way like old buddies.]

Source: Transcription and captures by Discover Kate, aired on NBC. (Look for better captures on Wednesday.)