The actress stars as Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller in her new movie, Lee
Kate Winslet had the perfect response to a crew member who urged the actress to hide her ‘belly rolls’.
Winslet, 48, stars as Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller in her upcoming movie Lee – which hits cinemas in the UK on September 13, followed by a theatrical release in the US on September 27.
Winslet’s character is a model-turned-photographer who goes on the front line during World War II to document the harrowing events that unfolded for Vogue.
While most Hollywood stars embark on a gruelling diet and exercise regime before shooting a movie, Winslet stopped working out all together so that her body looked ‘authentically soft’.
Speaking about portraying a woman’s natural shape, the 48-year-old actor told BBC: “It was my job to be like Lee. She wasn’t lifting weights or doing Pilates. She was eating cheese, bread and drinking wine, and not making a big deal of it. So of course, her body would be soft.”
Winslet added that women should celebrate ‘being a real shape, being soft and maybe having a few extra rolls’.
Speaking of rolls – apparently a crew member on the set of Lee urged Winslet to hide hers.
Recalling the exchange to Harper’s Bazaar, the Titanic star said: “There’s a bit where Lee’s sitting on a bench in a bikini… And 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?”
Winslet continued: “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.”
Winslet is sadly no stranger to people making unkind comments about her physique and previously had to hit out at people’s claims that her Titanic character Rose was ‘too fat’ and that’s why Jack [Leonardo DiCaprio] couldn’t fit on the door at the end of the movie.
The actress has hit out at body-shamers (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast in 2022, Winslet shared her thoughts on the matter.
“Apparently, I was too fat,” she said. “They were so mean. I wasn’t even f**king fat.”
Winslet went on to say that she was sad that she didn’t call people out at the time for their cruel jibes.
“If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way,” she said about her 22-year-old self.
“I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’
“That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
In a world of full on insecure people, we should all be more like Kate.
Featured Image Credit: BBC/ StudioCanal
