Kate Elizabeth Winslet, CBE (born 5 October 1975 in Reading, England) is a British actor widely regarded as one of the finest actors to ever grace the screen.
Winslet is known for her versatile and passionate performances, chameleonic acting style, work in independent films (specifically period dramas), affinity for portraying complicated female characters, the frequency with which she gets naked for her rolesnote , and being perpetually snubbed at the Oscars until 2009, when she won for Best Actress for The Reader. Amusingly, her Titanic co-star (and good friend) Leonardo DiCaprio was similarly known for his Oscar snubs before winning for The Revenant in 2016, leading some fans to jokingly suggest that Titanic was cursed.
Winslet first appeared in Heavenly Creatures (directed by Peter Jackson) at age 17, for which she earned the British Actress of the Year award. She then starred in the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility; her performance as Marianne Dashwood, the sister of Emma Thompson's Elinor Dashwood, brought her universal acclaim, with nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe, and wins in SAG, BAFTA and British Film Awards at the age of 19.
In 1997, Winslet starred opposite DiCaprio in Titanic, which became a massive box office hit and launched her into mega-stardom. She received her second Academy Award nomination at age 22 for her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater, and was nominated for practically every other award possible. In an effort to escape the insane pressure, Winslet made a conscious decision to act in independent movies that she loved and challenged her, including Holy Smoke!, Quills and Iris; the latter scoring her another Oscar nomination.
Winslet's roles in the 2000s included Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, Sarah Pierce in Little Children, Hannah Schmitz in The Reader and April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, the latter two winning her two Golden Globes in the same night.
Demonstrating her great versatility, Winslet acted in English Rose type roles in Finding Neverland, The Holiday and A Little Chaos, dramas that relied primarily on her facial expressions (Labor Day, Wonder Wheel and Ammonite), villain roles (Divergent, Triple 9), a thriller (Contagion), and a comedy-drama (The Dressmaker), earning universal acclaim and a slew of awards, including an AACTA, Hollywood Film Award, TIFF Award and a Honorary César. She also won an Emmy Award for the TV miniseries adaptation of Mildred Pierce in 2021, and won a second of those a decade later for Mare of Easttown; she played the title character in both.
Winslet has mastered a wide range of accents which allows her to pull almost any Fake Nationality convincingly: Australian, Moroccan, American, Russian, German, Polish-Armenian-American, Dorset and Delco.
She additionally won a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Spoken Word Albumnote , making her just a Tony Award away from an EGOT.
She has been married three times, and is the mother of three children, one by each of her husbands (two sons, one daughter). Winslet is currently married to Edward Abel Smith.
Filmography:
- Heavenly Creatures (1994) as Juliet Hulme
- A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) as Princess Sarah
- Sense and Sensibility (1995) as Marianne Dashwood
- Jude (1996) as Sue Bridehead
- Hamlet (1996) as Ophelia
- Titanic (1997) as Rose DeWitt Butaker
- Hideous Kinky (1998) as Julia
- Holy Smoke! (1999) as Ruth Barron
- Quills (2000) as Madeleine
- Enigma (2001) as Hester Wallace
- Iris (2001) as Young Iris Murdoch
- The Life of David Gale (2003) as Bitsey Bloom
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) as Clementine Kruczynski
- Finding Neverland (2004) as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
- Romance & Cigarettes (2005) as Tula
- Little Children (2006) as Sarah Pierce
- Flushed Away (2006) (voice) as Rita Malone
- All the King's Men (2006) as Anne Stanton
- The Holiday (2006) as Iris
- The Reader (2008) as Hannah Schmitz
- Revolutionary Road (2008) as April Wheeler
- Mildred Pierce (2011) (TV miniseries) as Mildred Pierce
- Contagion (2011) as Erin Mears
- Carnage (2011) as Nancy Cowan
- Movie 43 (2013) as Beth
- Labor Day (2013) as Adele Wheeler
- The Divergent series as Jeanine Matthews
- Divergent (2014)
- The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)
- A Little Chaos (2014) as Sabine De Barra
- Steve Jobs (2015) as Joanna Hoffman
- The Dressmaker (2015) as Myrtle "Tilly" Dunnage
- Triple 9 (2016) as Irina Vlasov
- Collateral Beauty (2016) as Claire Wilson
- The Mountain Between Us (2017) as Alex Martin
- Wonder Wheel (2017) as Ginny Rannell
- Blackbird (2019) as Jennifer
- Moominvalley (2019-2020) as Mrs. Fillyjonk (voice)
- Ammonite (2020) as Mary Anning
- Mare of Easttown (2021) (TV miniseries) as Mare Sheehan (also served as executive producer)
- Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) as Ronal
- The Regime (2024) as the Chancellor
Associated Tropes:
- Actor Shipping: After acting together as a pair of lovers in Titanic, everyone shipped Winslet with her Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, although the two have never been more than friends.
- And Starring:
- She's credited this way in the opening credits of Divergent.
- Was And Introducing in Heavenly Creatures.
-
Award Snub: The failure by The Academy in awarding her an Oscar in Titanic is famously known as one of the biggest snubs in history. Likewise with Eternal Sunshine and Steve Jobs. - Breakaway Pop Hit: She recorded a song called "What If" to go along with a 2001 animated version of A Christmas Carol. The film flopped and is mostly forgotten. But the song was a Number 1 in three different countries and came close to winning the Christmas top spot in the UK. The song is remembered more than the film these days.
- The Cast Show Off: She sings on screen in Heavenly Creatures and Sense and Sensibility, and recorded a single to tie in with A Christmas Carol.
- Creator Backlash:
- Despite Titanic making her famous and her forming a friendship with Leonardo DiCaprio, she is embarrassed by her performance and accent in it - describing it as like watching an old home movie of herself. She also stated that she would not work for James Cameron again unless she got paid a lot of money, noting that his Hair-Trigger Temper made him difficult to work with. She eventually worked with Cameron again in Avatar: The Way of Water over twenty years later, and noted she had a far more positive experience with the director this time, saying he'd mellowed with age. More than the film itself, she's also made it clear she's come to despise the theme song "My Heart Will Go On", mostly because of it being heavily overplayed or referenced around her. She jokingly said that she'd throw up if she had to hear "My Heart Will Go On" again, and also joked that if you’re hosting a party she’s attending, and she isn’t taking the hint that it’s time to leave, just play the Celine Dion song, and she’ll be gone before you turn around.
- She doesn't have fond memories of A Kid in King Arthur's Court, since she was told to lose weight for the role, and became sick as a result.
- She's expressed regret for working with both Woody Allen in Wonder Wheel and Roman Polański in Carnage.
- Creator Breakdown: Following the death of her mother in 2017, she took a two-year break from acting.
- Dawson Casting: Juliet is thirteen when Heavenly Creatures starts, but Kate was already eighteen. Arguably justified, given how the film covers a couple of years and features some intimate scenes requiring an older actress.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Dyed her hair red for Titanic.
- Contrary to popular belief, Clementine’s hair colours in Eternal Sunshine were achieved through multiple wigs.
- Enforced Method Acting:
- She and Emma Thompson lived together while filming Sense and Sensibility in order to develop a natural sisterly chemistry.
- Enforced Method Acting: She came onto the set of Divergent a little later than everyone else and initially kept her distance from the young actors, resulting in them being quite intimidated by her.
- English Rose: She plays these a lot because she has the classic naturally beautiful looks of the archetype and the right accent.
- Fake American: She's English but many of her most famous roles are American characters. Titanic, The Life of David Gale, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, All the King's Men, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, Mildred Pierce, Contagion (2011), Carnage, Labor Day, Divergent, Insurgent, Steve Jobs, Collateral Beauty, Wonder Wheel, The Mountain Between Us, Blackbird, Mare Of Easttown. Steve Jobs was especially tricky to pull off, as Joanna Hoffman was a Polish immigrant whose accent was a mix between that and American..
- Fake Australian: Her accent in both Holy Smoke and The Dressmaker is highly considered to be the most accurate Australian accent by a non-Australian in film history. Simply put, Winslet articulated one of the world’s most difficult accents to imitate TWICE in films, as perfectly as a native Australian.
- Fake Nationality: French in Quills, German in The Reader
- Hairy Girl: Allowed her underarm hair to grow out when she played 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning in Ammonite.
- Hide Your Pregnancy:
- She was five months pregnant while filming Divergent. Although she only had four weeks of shooting, they could only shoot her from the waist up. She's also carrying folders, files and iPads to cover the bump in wide shots.
- Ditto for Enigma, requiring some trick camera work to hide the bump. Although this trope was defied in the epilogue, when her character was shown to be pregnant as the result of a Relationship Upgrade with the lead male character which didn't happen in the original novel.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Her role in Revolutionary Road involved yelling and screaming at Leonardo DiCaprio, one of her closest friends in the showbusiness. They stated that it made it so much easier having that relationship, as their trust for each other was so strong.
- LGBT Fanbase: Many lesbians credit her role as Rose in Titanic, especially that scene, with sparking their sexual awakening. In addition to playing two lesbian characters- in Heavenly Creatures and Ammonite- and portraying strong, confident women, she’s got quite a big gay following.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's often naked or in revealing outfits in her roles. The famous scene in Titanic in Reclining Venus made her one of the most popular sex symbols in history. She also often has a Sexy Soaked Shirt scene, as she was in a thin and tight wet dress in Titanic, and in Sense and Sensibility, romantic Marianne is rain-soaked quite a bit. In The Dressmaker, she embodies a walking sex-symbol. She wears a lot of tight, form-fitting, sensual costumes that accentuate her curves, with bright red lipstick that features her plump lips. She would later film a lesbian sex scene with Saoirse Ronan in 2020's Ammonite.
- Oscar Bait: Amassed seven nominations and one win. She is one of the most Oscar-nominated actors of all time.
- Period Piece: She has starred in loads of period films and miniseries. Because of her affinity of doing these early in her career, her nickname became 'Corset Kate'.
- Playing Against Type:
- Her performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was such an immense change that it truly altered her course as an actor. It showed to the world how adept she is in a contemporary piece, playing an American. Subsequently, she received an Oscar nomination and her portrayal is considered one of the best of the decade.
- Revolutionary Road. DiCaprio and Winslet knew that their next film collaboration couldn’t bear any resemblance with Titanic so they did the exact opposite; star-crossed lovers contrasted against a couple in a marriage going nowhere.
- In Divergent not only playing a villain but starring in a YA dystopia movie.
- Promoted Fangirl: She had a massive crush on Guy Pearce when he was on Neighbours. The two of them went on to play love interests in Mildred Pierce and Mare Of Easttown.Winslet: I was completely obsessed with him from the age of 11 years old to the point that I would skip school so I could watch the midday edition as well as the repeat at 5:30. When I did work with Guy on Mildred Pierce, I had to say “Look, I’ve been in love with you since I was 11. And we share the same birthday, which I’ve also known since I was 11 years old.”
- So My Kids Can Watch: Took the part of Jeanne in Divergent after her kids loved the books.
- Star-Making Role: She earned an Oscar nomination for Sense and Sensibility, but Titanic is what turned her into a household name. She however avoided major studio pictures afterwards, and focused only on projects she liked. She became a critical darling as a result.
- Those Two Actors:
- Acted with Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility and A Little Chaos.
- Played lovers with Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic (1997) and Revolutionary Road.
- Acted with Jude Law in three films: All The King's Men, The Holiday and Contagion.
- Played love interests with Guy Pearce in two HBO miniseries: Mildred Pierce and Mare Of Easttown.
- Unbuilt Casting Type: Before being typecast as English Roses and Proper Ladies, she starred in Heavenly Creatures, playing a girl with the appearance and background of an English Rose, but who's soon revealed as a deranged eventual murderer.
- What Could Have Been:
- She was the first choice to play Helena Ravenclaw in the last Harry Potter movie but the producers couldn't get a hold of her agent so they went elsewhere (specifically to Kelly Macdonald).
- She was considered for the part of Miranda Tate/Talia in The Dark Knight Rises before Marion Cotillard was cast.
- Almost played SAURON in The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson toyed with the idea of having Sauron pull a One-Winged Angel in the final battle, as an angelic creature to fight Aragorn. She was also offered the role of Eowyn, which eventually went to Miranda Otto.
- The producers had Winslet in mind to play the character of River Song on Doctor Who.
