ate Winslet’s acting debut was in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs at the tender age of 11. The girl from Reading could never have imagined that only seven years later at 19 she would become an international film star in Titanic. Nor that a decade after that, she’d bag an Oscar for Best Actress in The Reader.
K
With prestigious acting nominations, one Oscar, two BAFTAS, three Golden Globe awards and a CBE under her designer belt, Kate at 40 has become one of England’s best actresses, with an estimated wealth of £59milllion. She argues she’s an actress, not a star, and lives happily with her third husband, Ned Rocknroll, and her three children in England.
Yet none of this seemed likely when she was in her teens. At 5’6” she weighed 13 stone, was bullied and hated being called Blubber. So she decided to do what millions of other young girls do and dieted.
Although her weight can still yo- yo, today she’s a stunningly svelte, stylish and beautiful woman, who looks sensationally glamorous, strutting her stuff on the red carpets.
Oozing pure couture glitz, she looked magnificent playing the role of the vengeful femme fatale in last year’s The Dressmaker, returning from Paris to the Australian town to exact revenge on the locals who done her wrong. Winslet gets irritated when people suggest that success came too early and easily for her. What they don’t realise is that beneath her English Rose exterior lies a fiercely ambitious steel butterfly. Born in Berkshire to Roger, a swimming pool contractor, and Sally Anne, a barmaid, Kate studied drama from childhood at Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead, and then attended the London-based Starmaker School of Drama, performing in more than 20 stage productions.
Her film debut in 1994 was the critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures; followed by feature roles in Sense and Sensibility and Hamlet. But it was Titanic that swept her to stardom.
Kate truly, madly, desperately wanted the role of Rose. However, her agent couldn’t get it for her. So she took the bull by the horns, found out producer’s James Cameron’s car telephone number, rang him and declared: “You are really mad if you don’t cast me!” Cameron pulled into a layby to listen while she pleaded her case.
Then at the Cannes Film Festival, Winslet stormed into Leonardo DiCaprio’s hotel room, telling him that they “had to make the film together.” Her agent tied up the deal. Kate had her chance. And that is what Hollywood calls 125% chutzpah!
Not all of Kate’s films have hit the jackpot. But when she’s good, she is very, very, very good. Particularly in Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp; reunited with DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road; playing the young Iris Murdoch in Iris; romantic romping in The Holiday; and the tragic, former SS guard opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Reader. She was also utterly mesmerizing in the slick 2011 television mini-series, Mildred Pierce, that earned her a much deserved Golden Globe award. This award season she’s already won a Golden Globe, and nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress as Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs, the bio-pic about Apple’s co-founder.
And, she’s on the screen this Spring in Triple 9, a crime-drama heist film, playing a glamorous but nasty Russian- Israeli mafia moll.
Life is good for Kate, but she still remembers those awful early days. “I was the chubby one, who never got asked to dance at the disco. I love my job, but underneath it all, I’m still Kate from Reading.”
Meryl Streep is Winslet’s role model. Will Kate one day have as illustrious a film career as Streep. Why not? Like Meryl, Kate is also an excellent singer. And, if they do a remake of Mamma Mia! in 20 years, Kate’s the obvious choice to slip into Meryl’s shoes!
Instant stardom in Titanic
Slinky and sophisticated at London premiere of Steve Jobs
Kate with Leo at January’s Screen Actors Guild Awards
Promoting The Dressmaker on The Tonight Show in New York
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