Kate Winslet says public scrutiny of her weight caused her to feel self-conscious about her own body image as a young actress, even as she was one of the biggest stars in the entire world. “In my 20s, people would talk about my weight a lot,” the 45-year-old Oscar winner says inan interview with the Guardian. “And I would be called to comment on my physical self. Well, then I got this label of being ballsy and outspoken. No, I was just defending myself.”
The Titanic star tells the newspaper that she recently re-read some articles written about her when she was still a teenager and was surprised by how ‘cruel’ the discussion about her weight was in the media. “And it was almost laughable how shocking, how critical, how straight-up cruel tabloid journalists were to me,” Winslet says. “I was still figuring out who the hell I bloody well was! They would comment on my size, they’d estimate what I weighed, they’d print the supposed diet I was on.” The British actress went on to open up about regretting acting in films directed by Woody Allen and Roman Polanski given their respective scandals.
“I realised it was sitting very badly with me,” Winslet says of working with Allen in 2017’s Wonder Wheel. “I shouldn’t have worked with Woody, or Roman (Polanski), and I’ll probably always grapple with those regrets. It’s just unbelievable to me now that those men have been held in such high regard in this industry, and for such a long time. I defy anyone in the acting community to deny that parts in their movies were heavily coveted. And that’s only just changed.”
Winslet, who starred in 2011 Polanski film Carnage opposite John C Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Jodie Foster, also acknowledged that she’s gotten flak in Hollywood for speaking out after having already acted in the controversial directors’ films.
