| Kate Winslet Articles & Interviews Glamour December 2004 |
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| The Class Act Kate Winslet With two movies generating Oscar buzz, this titanic talent keeps proving that refusing to conform is the smartest way to live you life. By Laurie Sandell Photograph by Patrick Demarchelier Arriving at L.A.’s Hotel Bel-Air for her Glamour interview, Kate Winslet lights up the minute she steps into the suite: It’s the same one her parents stayed in, she says, for the 1998 Oscars. At the time Winslet was at the center of the whirlwind that was Titanic, a film that grossed $1.8 billion worldwide, earned her a Best Actress nomination and made her, at 22, the youngest person ever to receive two Acadamy Award nominations (the first was for 1995’s Sense and Sensibility). The secret to Winslet’s success ever since: not doing what’s expected of her. She’s consistently refused to conform to Hollywood beauty standards, and she’s opted for quirky roles in films like Heavenly Creatures (1994), Hamlet (1996), and Hideous Kinky (1998). Her choices have paid off. In 2002 she picked up, yes, a third Oscar nomination for her work in Iris, and this year she’s drawing raves for two films, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. Winslet is dead serious about her acting—several times during this interview she actually jumped to her feet and played out favorite scenes right in front of me—but she’s even more serious about having a life with her husband, director Sam Mendes, and two kids, Mia, 4, and Joe, 11 months. Natural talent, natural curves, natural guts—that’s Kate. Naturally, we love her. GLAMOUR: You’ve had an unbelievable run these past few years: marriage, babies, Oscar buzz. How are you feeling about 2004? KATE WINSLET: It’s been pretty spectacular for me. Being with my little family has just made me so happy, and careerwise, it feels like a complete turnaround. Until Eternal Sunshine I’d always reached the line of fear as an actor, and sometimes crossed it, but mostly I played it safe. And with this character, there was just no playing it safe. Between that film and Finding Neverland—well, it’s an actor’s dream year. I’m turning 29 tomorrow, and as I get older I realize more how incredibly lucky I am. GLAMOUR: Happy birthday! You’ve accomplished so much by age 29. You must be working all the time. KW: Actually, most of the year I don’t work. Most of the time I am just a mum. And when I say “just a mum,” I am truly just a mum. You know: food down my top, squeezing in 10 minutes to put on a bit of mascara before putting the baby down, making sure Mia’s ready to go to preschool and running out the door. That part of my life is completely normal. GLAMOUR: How has having children changed you? KW: Now when I go to work, and still manage to puree Joe’s baby food three days in advance, set up Mia’s playdates for the week and make it home in time for bath and bedtime, I feel so much more triumphant. It’s like, Christ, I really am holding it together: I’m doing my job, and being a wife, and being a mother, and everybody’s happy. GLAMOUR: What have you learned from having one marriage end and another begin? KW: When I married Mia’s father [assistant director Jim Threapleton], I was very young. I just didn’t know who I was. I’m a person who doesn’t regret things; my attitude is, “Well that was a f—k up, let’s just move on.” But the mistake we made, and the losses we have in our lives, form who we are. Thank God that happened, because I wouldn’t have had Mia, and she was a life-changing event. GLAMOUR: Who are some of your heroes? KW: Meryl Streep is my woman of every year. I feel like such a nerdy fan, but she really is the best actress in the world. Also she’s aging naturally, and she looks amazing. My parents and siblings are my personal heroes. GLAMOUR: Do you still feel a responsibility to be a healthy-body role model for women? KW: I do, because I still get lots of fan mail from mothers saying, “My daughter had an eating disorder and then she read an interview that you gave and said, ‘Mum, life’s too short.’” We live I an image-obsessed world. It’s not just women trying to stay thin; it’s women trying to stay young, or change their boobs, or just change themselves. There’s a lot of media pressure on women to look a certain way, and when my daughter is a teenager, I don’t want her to grow up with the wrong idea of what beauty is. GLAMOUR: Your attitude seems so healthy. Where does that come from? KW: When I was younger I was criticized a lot for how I looked, so the instinct to cover up any unnecessary bulges was huge. But once you have two children, you feel so goddamn proud that you got back to anything that remotely resembles what you previously looked like, every day is like a party! You think, “Oh my god, I can get into my jeans! Wow, this skirt does do up!” And I’m still in my twenties, so God knows I should embrace it. When I’m 50 I don’t want to look back and say, “I looked great then—why was I covering myself up?” GLAMOUR: Tell us something we don’t know about you. KW: This is going to sound utterly ridiculous, but I was a tap dancer until I was 16, and I was really good at it! Recently I found my old tap shoes and pretty soon I was Susie-Qing around the kitchen, doing double wings and triple time steps. Sam came in and said, “You’re pretty bloody good!” and I said, “Well, don’t be so surprised!” At that point I got embarrassed and made him go away. Then I carried on, and Sam was yelling from the other room, “That’s fantastic. Do that bit again!” It was so funny. GLAMOUR: Where do you see yourself five years from now? KW: In five years time, my tits will be down to my knees, and I’ll be completely contradicting myself and having lots of Botox and liposuction. No, no, no, no, no,--teasing, teasing!—in five years I hope to be pretty much in the same place emotionally, but feeling even happier and stronger. Careerwise, I want to keep enjoying my job and playing a variety of characters. But more than anything, I hope that my family is OK. Meeting Sam—which has been, well, the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me—has made me so much more centered and happy. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have another baby. If you don’t have a life in this crazy, wonderful business, how do you have a center and a soul? |
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