An interview with... Kate Winslet
Award-winning actress, style icon and devoted mother of
two, Kate Winslet appears to have it all. But, says GABRIELLE
DONNELLY, amid the Hollywood hype, this national treasure is
determined to keep it real...
Halfway through the shooting
of Kate Winslet's new TV mini-series, Mildred Pierce, her
children staged a rebellion against eating chicken. "And I
couldn't really blame them, poor things," she smiles when
we meet for tea in the uber-posh Hotel London in New York City.
"They'd been eating it for weeks, and it was all
Mildred's fault. In the story, Mildred is a restaurant owner
who bakes chicken pies, and there were several scenes where she
delivered great big speeches while she was cutting up a chicken.
And obviously, because she's a
professional, she needed to look like she'd been doing it for
years, like she could do it in her sleep. Now, those were my own
hands cutting up the chicken and I was determined to get it right,
so that when it came to the shoot I could concentrate on acting
instead of worrying whether I was going to cut off a chicken leg
and half my finger at the same time!
So in order to practise, I spent weeks hacking up 20 chickens a
day. I had a blast learning how to do this. By the way, I love
cooking and we had a brilliant culinary expert who taught me to
section like a pro, so it was like having cookery classes at home
just for me. But we did have a lot of chicken in the freezer and
the kids were fed it every day for a very long time, so after a
while they went way off it."
Welcome to the world of Kate Winslet, Oscar-winning actress,
consummate professional and
devoted mum to Mia, 10, and Joe, 7. Right now, she's talking
about work and has her movie star hat on. She's elegantly
groomed in a black Helmut Lang trouser suit, her thick golden hair
pulled back into a sophisticated knot and the sort of make-up that
is so impeccably applied that it looks barely there, highlighting
those strong, intelligent features and clear blue eyes. But scratch
the glossy professional surface, she says firmly, and you'll
find as harried a single
mum as the best of them.
"It's a juggling act, isn't it?" she smiles of
her jam-packed life. "It's a lot to do it all, to give
yourself to something like acting, which does demand so much of
your emotional self, and yet to be the mother that you want to be
able to be - to do the school run and the pick-ups every
day, to be there for all the crucial moments when they need you.
You just have to get really good at compartmentalising your brain
and prioritising where the focus lies at any given time. But
it's always a challenge - although no more for me than for any
working mother!"
It has always been a mission of Kate's to emphasise that -
although she is the first to acknowledge she has struck it very
lucky indeed with her career - underneath the glamour she is really
no different from the rest of us. "I like to fly the
'normal' flag," she told me once cheerfully.
"I'm not perfect and I don't want to be seen as
someone who is. The reason women in films look perfect is that
we've all been through three-and-a-half hours of hair and
make-up to look that way!"
She was born and brought up in Reading, the second of four children
to actors Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges-Winslet. Her maternal
grandparents, Linda and Archibald Bridges, founded and managed the
Reading Repertory Theatre, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, was a
West End actor who appeared in the original Oliver!. The family
grew up short of material goods, she says, but blessed in terms of
both love and resourcefulness. "Because there wasn't a lot
of
money it forced my parents to be practical about the things we did
- visiting friends who lived on
farms or hanging out in the park all day, where we would have many
outdoor adventures.
My parents read to us a lot and encouraged us to use our
imaginations and to be free and brave. I remember when I was about
eight, I desperately wanted to fly and became convinced this was
truly possible if I just believed in it. I recruited my poor
brother into the experiment and we would regularly throw ourselves
off the edge of the couch and end up with bruised knees and
nosebleeds!"
To read more, please turn to page 17 of your August issue
or click here to subscribe.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to submit a comment.
If you are not yet a Candis member and want to find out more about the benefits of joining Candis Magazine...
We're confident that our travel insurance will provide you with peace of mind, allowing you the freedom to sit back, relax and get the most out of your holiday. Whether you're off on a short break or venturing further afield, our policies will keep you covered. Save up to £22.58 with Candis Travel Insurance More
Comments:
There are currently no comments for this article, be the first by using the box below.