Kate Winslet, the discreet star who prefers to live far from Hollywood

Global star thanks to the film’s mega box office success Titanic, actress Kate Winslet is enjoying a remarkable career despite the pitfalls of a childhood lived in poverty. In the thirty films in which she has played in the last 30 years, she has accumulated a dozen awards and more than 35 million cinema admissions. In a first biography of the star, the author Jacques Demange recounts the unique journey of the British actress. Her extreme perfectionism, her brilliant acting and her great determination explain the phenomenal success of Kate Winslet, demonstrates the author.

However, the actress has chosen discretion and to live far from the artifices offered by Hollywood life, preferring to remain in England, her country of origin, where she raises her children. In fact, Kate Winslet does everything differently from others, betting on the best she has to offer.

From the outset, we understand that the actress is equipped with a sensitivity on edge. She will say herself that she often finds it difficult to detach herself from the characters she embodies, being able to cry several days following a shoot. It is undoubtedly this great sensitivity added to his immeasurable determination which is the guarantee of his success. Moreover, the vast majority of critics have only positive things to say regarding her, just like her playing partners. Leonardo DiCaprio friend and the one with whom she shared the star in Titanic et The rebel wedding will say regarding her that she is the best prepared on a set.

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We can say that everything predestined Kate Winslet to become what she has become.

First there were his parents, even his grandparents who were both actors in addition to running the Reading Repertory Theater Company. Born in Reading, Berkshire, England, her mother worked as a nanny and waitress, while her father Roger John Winslet was an unsuccessful actor who struggled to support his family. After an accident his career took a turn for the worse, to the point where in order to survive he had to appeal to charities to get free meals for his family.

At only 11 years old, she was accepted at the Redroofs Theater School to begin her training in drama. Two years later, she will have a first contract. During her studies, she will be the subject of mockery because of her weight, she weighs then 185 pounds. She will even be bullied for her appearance. But bad language will not be enough to diminish her desire to succeed in an acting career.

If she knew the consecration at only 22 years old, with the status of international star thanks to the film Titanicreleased in 1997, it should be remembered that her career began a few years earlier, notably in 1994, when she landed the role of Juliet Hulme in celestial creatures. However, to support herself, she had to work in a charcuterie, being often out of work between two productions.

Titanic : the shoot that changed everything

Despite a difficult start, Kate Winslet is still determined to succeed. Even before filming begins Titanic, she takes the lead in contacting director James Cameron to get the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater, the young aristocrat in the film. She multiplies the steps writing to him daily. At his insistence, she will be invited to audition in Hollywood. Although the young actress impresses the director in the audition, her acting being intense, he hesitates in particular for her curves in a Hollywood world where beauty is represented by the cult of thinness. His British accent also makes you hesitate.

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in one of cinema’s most memorable scenes.

She will multiply the phone calls to Cameron and will send him a rose referring to his role. Kate will call on the services of dialect coach Susan Hegarty, who allows her to gradually abandon her British accent.

The filming of Titanic was difficult for Kate, who nearly drowned and suffered from hypothermia, but the work would be hailed and it would become the highest-grossing film of the time with $1.8 billion in box office receipts. global office.

After his success in TitanicKate buys a house from her parents and says that from now on she will never have to cut cold cuts to support herself.

She will nevertheless make surprising choices in the eyes of many. Instead of waiting for the next blockbuster, she will opt for much more modest productions, such as Marrakech Express et Holy Smokemodestly saying that she still has a lot to learn as an actress.

Moreover, not wanting to be cataloged by producers and directors for historical films, she will voluntarily choose roles allowing her to change register completely.

Thus, we will see it in The Life of David Galetackling the theme of the death penalty and then in lighter films like, in Neverland or in the romantic comedy The Holiday, where she co-stars with Cameron Diaz in the romantic comedy.

In 2009, she will be noticed once more in the film, The Reader (The Reader), where she plays a woman accused of Nazi crimes during World War II. A role that asked him a lot on the psychological level. Her work will be rewarded, she will get the Oscar for best actress.

She will agree to play in a few TV series including Mildred Pierce where she made a name for herself, winning the Emmy for Best Actress in a Miniseries.

A free woman with three husbands

Kate Winslet says she loves her job, but considers herself a mother first and foremost. Moreover, she often chooses her shoots according to her children’s school holidays. She will have had three from three different fathers.

Her first marriage took place in 1998, with Jim Threapleton, an assistant director whom she met on Marrakech Express. Together they will have a daughter, Mia Honey Threapleton. The marriage would only last three years. In 2003, she will marry director Sam Mendes. Kate Winslet gave birth to her second child, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes in 2003.

Since 2011, she has been married to Richard Branson’s nephew, Edward Abel Smith with whom she had her third child, Bear Blaze Winslet.

In her choices as a free woman, she also claims to be comfortable playing nude scenes, having already done so in a dozen films. For her, this is a tribute to women promoting a positive body image.

Today, the 47-year-old actress lives with her boyfriend and children on a seaside estate in West Wittering, England, which she bought in 2015 for 3.25 million pounds (5 .8 million Canadian).

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Courtesy

Cover of Kate Winslet’s biography

Kate Winslet: The Discreet

Jacques Demange

LettMotif Editions

230 pages