Kate Winslet Reveals 'Horrific' Body-Shaming After Titanic

Actor, 49, says she privately slammed critics of her weight then, telling them: 'I hope this haunts you'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 4, 2024 7:35 AM CST
Updated Dec 8, 2024 7:00 AM CST

Kate Winslet recently chatted with 60 Minutes, in an interview that aired Sunday to promote her new Lee Miller biopic, and the 49-year-old actor revealed that walking the red carpet after filming 1997's Titanic turned out to be a "horrific" experience, complete with body-shaming, per the Guardian and People. One clip played by the news program showed Winslet, then in her early 20s, at the 1998 Golden Globes with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, with an E! News commentator noting on air that Winslet looked "a little melted and poured" into the black-and-white lace gown she was wearing, which should've maybe been "two sizes larger." "I gasped at how cruel some of that coverage was," the 60 Minutes interviewer told Winslet, who agreed with that assessment.

"It's absolutely appalling," Winslet replied. "What kind of a person must they be to do something like that to a young actress who's just trying to figure it out?" Winslet said she never went after anyone in public retaliation, though she said in private she "let them have it." "I said, 'I hope this haunts you,'" she tearfully noted. "It was a great moment, because it wasn't just for me. It was for all those people who were subjected to that level of harassment. It was horrific, it was really bad." Winslet said that comments about her body stretch back to when she was first starting out—she recalled her acting teacher telling her, "If you're going to look like this, you'll have to settle for the fat girl parts."

Winslet told 60 Minutes: "I was never even fat. ... It made me think, 'I'll just show you—just quietly.'" The remarks even continue to the present day: Winslet told Harper's Bazaar earlier this year that before filming the Miller movie, she'd cut out exercising so she'd be "authentically soft" to match Miller's body type. "One of the crew came up between takes and said: 'You might want to sit up straighter.' So you can't see my belly rolls? Not on your life! It was deliberate, you know?" As for fears of not looking perfect on the big screen, Winslet noted she felt "the opposite. I take pride in it because it is my life on my face, and that matters. It wouldn't occur to me to cover that up." (More Kate Winslet stories.)

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