The “really brave” role Kate Winslet played to avoid movie stardom: “It’s a bit daft”
When Kate Winslet took on the role of Rose in James Cameron’s Titanic, she surely knew that she was going to become mega-famous. With such a huge budget and extensive practical effects making the movie a mammoth production of epic proportions, there was no way she was going to play the lead and not walk away as one of Hollywood’s most recognisable celebrities.
Of course, the fame she achieved was instant, although it wasn’t like she was unfamiliar with being in the public eye, having already starred in the popular Peter Jackson thriller Heavenly Creatures and the Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility. Still, Titanic was the next step up – you couldn’t get bigger than this blockbuster. For many stars, this new level of fame might go to their heads, creating a deluded and narcissistic sense of self based on the fact that they’d gotten lucky enough to appear in a movie that smashed the box office. But not Winslet.
So, in the wake of Titanic, Winslet did something that not many actors in her position would do. Instead of seizing the opportunity to headline more multi-million dollar flicks, she opted for some indie roles, able to have some control over her career from the financial security she was afforded from Titanic. It was smart.
She didn’t suddenly see small productions as beneath her, nor did she think she was owed more blockbuster roles. “Maybe I’m an exception because I really didn’t let it get to me. Before Titanic, yes, I had done some things and, yes, I had been nominated for an Academy Award, but I had never been sort of world-famous. And I suppose, yes, I am really famous now. But I feel embarrassed to say that because it’s just a bit daft for me. When I thought about becoming an actress, I never had fantasies about being a movie star,” she told The New York Times.
Winslet surprised people with her next few movies, which included Hideous Kinky, based on Esther Freud’s memoir, and Faeries, a low-budget British animated kids’ film. But then came an indie movie that she considered a “very brave” choice – Holy Smoke!. The film gave Winslet the chance to work with Jane Campion, who’d already found acclaim with The Piano a few years before. Known for championing female characters, specifically with regard to sexuality and autonomy, Campion thus cast Winslet in the role of a woman sucked into a new age cult, with Harvey Keitel’s character attempting to lure her out of it.
“’I loved the script, I loved the character, I admired Jane Campion, I wanted to do it with Harvey Keitel, and fundamentally I thought the story was incredibly interesting and really, really brave,” she explained. It was exactly the opposite of what people expected her to do, which is perhaps why she was so set on doing it.
Having the freedom to do an indie movie with a director she admired straight after Titanic was ideal. How many actors get to do that? “I think more and more people these days go for the safe option in filmmaking. Holy Smoke! is very brave because I don’t think it’s easy to watch.”
Of course, Winslet didn’t completely write off blockbusters, starring in Avatar less than a decade later, but movies like Holy Smoke! gave her the freedom to work intuitively, not giving in to the pressures of Hollywood stardom and the demands of fame.
