Kate Winslet says she still gets nervous when she really wants a role and has moments of doubt, despite being an Oscar-winning actress.
“Oh, honestly, it’s a whole lot of mind-blowing,” she said with a laugh in an interview with 60 minutes which aired on Sunday. “I mean, it is, even to this day. Like anything, a job interview is absolutely terrifying. If it’s a job you really want, that’s doubly terrifying.”
Despite her Oscar win for 2008 The reader — she sometimes feels like she’s not worthy of a role.
“And then?” she said when it was noted that she had won the film industry’s top prize. “When I was doing LeeI sat there and said, ‘This is ridiculous. … I can honestly think of at least five other brilliant actresses who would have played this role much better than I did. I would like to do much better.’ And often I turn to another crew member and say, “They just read the wrong name on the list.” I’m telling you, I wasn’t supposed to be here.” “
To play World War II photographer Lee Miller in her latest film, Winslet – who was also a producer – researched archives with the help of Miller’s son. She also hired a historian to create an exact replica of Miller’s camera and actually took photos during her performance.
“It can’t just be a prop,” she said. “It had to feel like an extension of my arms. I had to have confidence in it and feel comfortable with it. And to do that, I had to know what I was doing.”
Miller was a fashion model who turned to photography. During World War II she served as a war correspondent for Fashion and captured the photographs of the first recorded use of napalm, as well as some of the first images of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. She was also photographed sitting in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub in his private apartment in Munich on the day he committed suicide in Berlin. Winslet said it wasn’t easy at first to get lenders on board.
“There was a potential investor who said to me, ‘Why should I like this woman?’ I mean, she’s drunk, she’s, you know, she’s kind of loud. She, I mean, he probably just said she has wrinkles on her face,” she said.
Winslet added: “It’s hard to make films about historical female figures. You know, these aren’t typically movies that would necessarily do well at the box office,” she said, noting “proudly” that her film has grossed almost $25 million worldwide to date.
The actress said she doesn’t mind challenging Hollywood norms on screen after being mocked for her weight early in her career, and is bothered by the double standards for men.
“People say, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You weren’t wearing any makeup,” she said. “You know, ‘You had wrinkles.’ We say to the men, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. Have you grown a beard?’ No. We don’t do that. …it’s not brave. It plays a role.”
She added that during one scene, a Lee crew member told her to “suck it in, sit up.” But she refused to do this.
‘I don’t think Lee would have done that [that]she said. “It’s about knowing that Lee’s comfort with her physical self was hard to win.” Plus, she added, “it’s exhausting” to worry about it all the time.
Meanwhile, Winslet responded a bit when asked about her breakout role in 1997 Titanic – specifically whether Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) could have fit on the piece of wood with Rose, potentially saving his life.
“You know what? I have no idea,” she replied.
When asked if she is annoyed by questions about a 27-year-old film, Winslet replied: “No. I’m telling you what I sometimes just find strange, I think, whatever I say about it Titanic will often be the take-home, so I just think, ‘Oh, well, there were these things I said about the movie I was talking about,’ and yet that’s the only thing. So that’s the only thing I sometimes think: hmm.”
