Kate Winslet emotionally reflects on the body shaming she faced in herTitanicdays. The Oscar-winning James Cameronfilmwas a major breakout movie for Winslet, who was 22 at the time. Before playing Rose in the epic romantic drama, her filmography includedSense and SensibilityandHamlet.However,Titanicwas a blockbuster at the box office andgot awards to propel her career forward. The movie won eleven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects.
While speaking in a60 Minutesinterview,Winslet choked up explaining her experience with body-shaming followingTitanic. In the interview, theteam played back a clip wherein a journalist says that the actor looked “melted and poured” in herTitanicred carpet dress, suggesting she should have gone for two sizes larger. Winslet responded that behavior like that was “absolutely appalling,” though unfortunately a constant in her days working on the movie. One person even told her that she would have to “settle for the fat girl parts.” Check out the full quote from Winslet below:
It’s absolutely appalling. 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?
I let them have it. I said, ‘I hope this haunts you.’ It was a great moment. 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
[An acting teacher once told me] ‘Now, listen, Kate. I’m telling you, darling, if you’re going to look like this, you’ll have to settle for the fat girl parts.’
I was never even fat. It made me think, ‘I’ll just show you – just quietly.’
What Winslet’s Experience Means For Hollywood
Changes Have Happened, But They Have Been Less Significant Than They Should Be
Winslet’s story is unfortunately common in terms of the historical treatment of female actors in Hollywood. As the actor mentions, she was “never even fat,” but rather played romantic leads that positioned her as this beautiful, idealized lead. Even this did not stop journalists and acting coaches from making inappropriate comments about her physical appearance. Even decades later,Winslet still tears up thinking about how she was treated onTitanic, highlighting how negative of an impact something like this can have on actors.
Kate Winslet’s Period Pieces, Ranked According To Rotten Tomatoes
Kate Winslet made a career of playing heroines in period pieces, many of which received critical acclaim, as evidenced by their high RT score.
It is hard to imagine a blunt body comment being allowable today. Unfortunately, Hollywood has not come as far as some would hope in the years since Winslet’s experience. Only in the last few years,intimacy coordinators have become a mainstay on sets. Before this time, it was commonplace for actors, particularly women, to be pressured into showing more nudity than they wanted to in movies and television. Progress is being made in this regard, but it still shows that a lack of respect for actor’s bodies has persisted over the years.
Our Take On Kate Winslet’s Titanic Experience
Winslet Has Gone On To Boast An Impressive Career
Hollywood should consider itself lucky that a negative experience early on did not ward off Winslet from acting. Sincebeing cast inTitanic, she has enjoyed a vibrant career that has included both Oscar and Emmy wins. I wish I could say that Hollywood has improved completely since the late ’90s, but this is not the case. For this reason, I think it is important for actors like Winslet to continue to speak out against body-shaming and similar experiences today.
Titanic
Cast
Titanic is the 1997 blockbuster romantic/disaster epic based on the events surrounding the sinking of the legendary “unsinkable” vessel. Flashing back to the past and forward to the present, the film primarily follows the stories of the well-to-do and somewhat timid Rose and the poor but lively Jack, star-crossed lovers who meet aboard the doomed ship. In addition, the film tells true and fictionalized accounts of the passengers of the RMS Titanic, with an older Rose recounting her tale to the crew of a research ship.
