Kate Winslet is reflecting on how people have responded to her body for much of her career.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, via Variety, the Oscar and Emmy-winning actor spoke openly about how she was told to settle for “fat girl” parts when she was still in school. Later, when she was a professional actor, she said her agent would have to field calls from studios inquiring about her weight.
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“It can be extremely negative,” Winslet told the British newspaper about the pressure female actors tend to face. “People are subject to scrutiny that is more than a young, vulnerable person can cope with. But in the film industry it is really changing. When I was younger my agent would get calls saying, ‘How’s her weight?’ I kid you not. So it’s heartwarming that this has started to change.”
Winslet has contributed to Hollywood’s shifting perspectives on women’s bodies, and has advocated for more diverse bodies on screen.
Last year, she revealed to The New York Times she had to push back on attempts to airbrush her stomach in the award-winning HBO show “Mare of Easttown.” When her director promised to cut a “bulgy bit of belly” she had during a sex scene in the show, Winslet responded with: “Don’t you dare!”
In 2021, Winslet also spoke out against the public backlash she received because of her body after the release of “Titanic” in 1997, calling it “horrible and so upsetting” while speaking to The Guardian in 2021.
“In my 20s, people would talk about my weight a lot,” she told the outlet.
“I would be called to comment on my physical self,” she continued. “Then I got this label of being ballsy and outspoken. No, I was just defending myself.”