The 1994 movie that changed everything for Kate Winslet: “Took a punt on this little nobody”
Kate Winslet was everywhere in the late 1990s thanks to her role as Rose in the epic disaster weepy Titanic, which became one of the most successful movies ever made.
Winslet had only appeared in a small handful of movies by this point – she was just 21 at the time of shooting – but she demonstrated a really strong ability to leave a mark on audiences, even when the scope of the film threatened to swallow the actors up. It’s quite impressive that Winslet was able to score such a massive part in a Hollywood blockbuster so early on in her career, because she’d only made her film debut a few years before.
After a few TV roles in her native Britain, Winslet had put herself forward to star in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, a retelling of the Parker-Hulme case that took place in the 1950s, which saw a teenage girl murder her mother with the help of her best friend. Winslet auditioned for the part of the English Juliet Hulme and despite her limited resumé, she bagged the role.
Starring alongside Melanie Lynskey, Winslet impressed critics, and the movie marked a breakthrough for the pair of them. Winslet’s portrayal of the rather pretentious know-it-all Juliet was praised for its cunningness, and she took home several ‘Best Actress’ awards from the likes of the London Film Critics’ Circle and the Empire Awards.
It was this success that allowed her to secure her next role in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, her performance as Marianne Dashwood even landing the actor her first Academy Award nomination. Just three years on from her Heavenly Creatures debut, then, she’d racked up two Oscar nominations and roles in massive movies, including the highest-grossing movie ever made (at the time, anyway).
Yet, when Winslet reflects on her casting in Heavenly Creatures, she finds it hard to believe that she actually got the job. She had limited experience, especially in movies, and while she had attended a private school for a few years, she’d also experienced a less prosperous childhood, at one point supported by the Actors’ Charitable Trust.
30 years on from the film’s release, Winslet told TVNZ+, “It was the beginning of my whole career. It was the beginning. I mean, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh totally took a punt on this little nobody. I mean, I was absolutely nobody, and Melanie Lynskey the same. No one had ever heard of us. I’d done a bit of television.”
The odds were in Winslet’s favour, though, and her lack of experience didn’t seem to stop her from bagging a part in an Oscar-nominated film. Rather, it was perhaps her slight naivety and lack of experience that allowed her to step into the role so well.
“The two of us, we were so in it together, and we became such good friends,” Winslet added in reference to Lynskey, concluding, “I will be eternally grateful for it because it wasn’t just the opportunity – it was that it was that film, those characters, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. And that was the thing that was so valuable to me.”
