When Kate Winslet was first cast as Rose DeWitt Bukater in the iconic Titanic, it was a stark turn in an up-and-coming career mired with doubts and failed auditions. We all know now that she had nothing to worry about as she’s since gone on to receive an Academy Award for her work in The Reader and is one of the few performers to have won Academy, Emmy and Grammy Awards.
Winslet recently revealed her feelings of not belonging in the Hollywood scene
“I was playing an American for the first time. And working with Leo, who I’d seen in ‘[What’s Eating] Gilbert Grape’ and ‘Basketball Diaries.’ So it was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m Kate from Reading,’” she explained. “I was the overweight girl who would always be at the end of the line. And because my name was a W, sometimes I wouldn’t even get in the door of the audition because they’d run out of time before the Ws. And I was in ‘Titanic.’ It’s mad.”
Her primary concern stemmed from a working environment that seemed to cater towards actresses with thin physiques and a certain type of looks.
“I knew that I did not look that way or feel like I fit there, so if I was ever going to belong, I had to earn my place,” Winslet said. “To me, I hadn’t earned it. ‘Titanic’ might have been a fluke.”
Earlier in January this year, Winslet had said that she’d been ‘bullied’ and ‘criticized’ by the press following the release of ‘Titanic’
It seems a bit mad that an actress of Winslet’s caliber (one with 7 Oscar nominations), could be ridiculed to that extent. Fortunately, the actress’ perspective shifted with the birth of her daughter.
“When I became a mother at 25 (to daughter Mia), all of that stuff evaporated completely. Then tow years after she was born, I was asked to do ‘Eternal Sunshine (of the Spotless Mind). I do believe that was a huge turning point in my career because from then on people suddenly went, ‘Oh, she can do that?!’”
Kate Winslet has teamed up again with director James Cameron to appear in his sequel to Avatar, the mega-blockbuster that broke box office records back in 2009.
