Kate Elizabeth Winslet, CBE (born October 5, 1975 in Reading, England) is a British actor. Defined by her versatile and immaculate performances, she is considered as one of the finest actors to ever grace the screen.
Winslet is best known for being naked in almost every role she's done, her chameleon acting style, and being perpetually snubbed at the Oscars (until 2009 for The Reader). Amusingly, her Titanic (1997) co-star (and good friend) Leonardo DiCaprio similarly became famous for being perpetually snubbed at the Oscars until he won for The Revenant in 2016, leading some fans to jokingly suggest that Titanic was cursed.
She first appeared in Heavenly Creatures (directed by Peter Jackson), at age 17, which awarded her the British Actress of the Year. 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.
She performed in the period dramas Jude and Hamlet, winning a British Film Award for the former, and an Empire Award for Best British Actress for the latter.
In 1997, Winslet starred in the cultural-phenomenon Titanic (1997) launching her into mega-stardom overnight. She received her second Academy Award nomination at age 22 for her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater, as well as being nominated for practically every 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.
In 2004, she played against type in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in Clementine scored her 4th Oscar nomination.
In 2006, Winslet starred as Sarah Pierce in Little Children, a haunting portrayal of a dissatisfied wife. Her two roles in the 2008 films-The Reader and Revolutionary Road- awarded her two Golden Globes on the same night. Her portrayal as a German Nazi guard in The Reader awarded her the Oscar in 2009.
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.
In 2012, for playing the title role in the period drama Mildred Pierce, Winslet won a Golden Globe, SAG award and an Emmy.
In 2016, she won a Golden Globe and BAFTA and scored nominations for the SAG award and her 7th Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs.
In 2021, she starred and executive produced in the titular role of the phenomenon Mare of Easttown. She was awarded her second Emmy award for her performance.
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 is almost an EGOT winner, after winning a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Spoken Word Album.
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 And 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)
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.
- Creator Backlash: She does NOT have fond memories of Titanic, to say the least, besides forging a close friendship with Leo. She has gone on to say 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.
- 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, 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.
- Old Shame:
- Despite Titanic making her famous, she is embarrassed by her performance and accent in it - describing it as like watching an old home movie of herself. She said that she'd throw up if she had to hear "My Heart Will Go On" again. 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.
- A Kid in King Arthur's Court as well, since she was told to lose weight, and became sick as a result.
- She's also expressed regret for working with both Woody Allen in Wonder Wheel and Roman Polański in Carnage.
- 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.
- Playing Gertrude:
- In A Kid in King Arthur's Court she played the older sister Princess Sarah, but was six months younger than her onscreen sister Paloma Baeza.
- In the TV version of Mildred Pierce she's only twelve years older than Evan Rachel Wood, who plays her daughter.
- 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.
- 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 Mac Donald).
- 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 a Bishounen 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.
