Hollywood star Kate Winslet said she ‘takes pride’ in looking less-than-perfect onscreen and people are applauding her response.
The 48-year-old British actor is set to appear as photographer Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller in a biopic about her astonishing life later this year from debut feature director Ellen Kuras.
The film follows a ‘pivotal decade’ in the life of the American war correspondent who lived from 1907 to 1977.
Based on true events, Kate portrays Lee’s journey as she ended her modelling career and took up a camera on the brink of World War Two to capture the globe-altering event for Vogue magazine.
In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the Oscar-winning actor opened up about a surprising moment on set.
She explained: ‘There’s a bit where Lee’s sitting on a bench in a bikini… And one of the crew came up between takes and said: “You might want to sit up straighter.”‘
To which Kate replied: ‘”So you can’t see my belly rolls? Not on your life!” It was deliberate, you know?’.
When asked whether she minds looking less-than-perfect on screen, she added: ‘The opposite. I take pride in it because it is my life on my face, and that matters. It wouldn’t occur to me to cover that up.’
This Morning host Josie Gibson praised Kate’s strong stance on the ITV show, saying: ‘I just think it is such a positive role model…
‘I’ve looked back at pictures of me, even on here, and thought “oh no, the rolls, the rolls, I wish I had sat up straighter”, but we’ve all got them haven’t we.’
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Sonia Sodha agreed, adding: ‘It’s amazing, she’s a real inspiration. I think a lot of women have quite mixed feelings about aging. In the sense that you feel a bit complicit in the pressures that are put on women because we try to cover up the signs of aging.
‘It’s absolutely fabulous to have a woman like Kate Winslet, who is gorgeous and stunning just as she is, [be] so self-confident. And say “I am me”.’
This was echoed by fans online, with one X user @maheashdm31 writing: ‘Thank you, Kate, for standing up against the pressure to conform! Your authenticity encourages so many of us to embrace our true selves.’
‘Way to go, Kate! This makes me beyond happy. Let’s normalize reality,’ @tlynn24292231 added.
Elsewhere in the interview, she explained she had a similar approach to her naturally ageing face.
‘I think people know better than to say, “You might wanna do something about those wrinkles”. I’m more comfortable in myself as each year passes. It enables me to allow the opinions of others to evaporate,’ the Ammonite actor shared.
And just as she has found inspiration in ‘so many wonderful older actresses’, she hopes to be a role model for a ‘small pocket of people’ as well.
Kate hopes that the biopic will reclaim Lee’s story and remove it from the ‘male gaze’ for younger generations.
‘Post-#MeToo, we have a much greater perspective on what women in the public eye had to put up with. My hope is that, at the very least, the film will show people who Lee really was and what she went through,’ she added.
The star has long been subjected to scrutiny over her appearances, as far back as her starring role as Rose in Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as her lover Jack in 1997.
At the end of the James Cameron film, Rose and Jack are floating on a door in the ocean but ultimately there is not enough space for the two of them and Jack sacrifices himself to save Rose.
Talking about fan reaction afterward, Kate explained that some toxic discourse blamed her weight for the tragic outcome.
‘Apparently I was too fat. Isn’t it awful? Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even f**king fat,’ she said on a podcast a few years ago.
She added: ‘If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way.
‘I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, “Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.”‘
The Titanic director recently admitted that Kate – who has also appeared in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Holiday, Iris and The Reader – almost lost out on the coveted role of Rose as she had previously only appeared in period dramas.
‘It seemed like lazy casting,’ he told Variety.
‘But then wiser heads prevailed, and I could see what everybody was talking about. She’s very alive. She comes into a room with a great deal of confidence, and she’s got that spark of life.’
Lee will arrive in UK cinemas on September 13.
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