Kate Winslet Says People Kept Asking Her Agent If She Was Fat
Kate Winslet is reflecting on her experience with body shaming as a young actress. In an interview with The U.K Times, the 47-year-old recalled ridiculous career advice she received and how the industry tried to pigeonhole her talent. “When I was younger my agent would get calls saying, ‘How’s her weight?’ I kid you not,” the Titanic star told the publication.
The actress said she was often referred to as “blubber” and told to settle for “fat girl” roles when she was still in school. “It can be extremely negative,” Kate Winslet said about the pressure on female actors. She added that people are subject to a level of scrutiny which isn’t easy to cope with as a young person. However, she is happy that Hollywood is becoming more inclusive.
“It’s heartwarming that this has started to change,” she explained. The Academy Award winner also said that despite online criticism, women like her daughter Mia Threapleton, are stronger than she was at that age. “My daughter’s generation can speak for themselves,” Kate Winslet added. “They have already learned that they will be heard and know how to use their voice.”
The actress recalled that when she was younger, the rule was to speak when spoken to. “That is not the case now. Young women are stronger. And they’re prouder of their bodies,” she said. However, Kate Winslet did note that the ever-present nature of social media does come with its own set of challenges. “Needing to be on one’s guard is just a different thing now,” she told The Times. “It must be extraordinarily hard.”
After starring in Titanic, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the late 90s, Kate Winslet endured a barrage of body shaming from the media. Speaking to The Guardian in 2021, she said people talked about her weight a lot at the time. “It was almost laughable how shocking, how critical, how straight-up cruel journalists were to me,” she told the outlet. They would comment on her size, estimate what she weighed, and print her supposed diet.
While the stories hurt her self-esteem and confidence, Kate Winslet said she stopped caring about the criticism as soon as Mia was born in 2000. Since then, the actress has championed normal body types on screen. Most recently, she was adamant about not being “glammed up” during the making of the HBO series Mare of Easttown. And when director Craig Zobel offered to remove her “bulgy bit of belly” from an intimate scene with Guy Peace, she refused outright.
Recalling the offer to The New York Times, Kate Winslet described her character as a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life, and where she comes from. The actress credits this “no filters’ realism with the show’s success. “I guess that’s why people have connected with Marianne the way they have. Because there are clearly no filters,” the actress explained.
Meanwhile, Kate Winslet stars with her daughter in I Am Ruth. According to Deadline, the story follows a mother and daughter dealing with self-identity issues. The 47-year-old will also appear in Avatar: The Way of Water. Directed by James Cameron, the film is set for release on December 16th.
