The director who taught Kate Winslet the most: “I learned so much from him”
In terms of co-stars, Kate Winslet has racked up quite the list, with her most famous onscreen beau being Leonardo DiCaprio. Their alter egos, Rose and Jack, won and broke hearts in equal measure with Titanic, the then-highest-grossing movie of all time. Then there’s Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility, Jack Black, Jude Law, and Cameron Diaz in The Holiday, and the approximately 5000 famous people that joined her in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion.
It’s not just famous actors who make up this British star’s contacts list. Alongside Soderbergh, she’s been directed by James Cameron, with whom she reunited for Avatar: The Way of Water, Peter Jackson for Heavenly Creatures, Sam Mendes for Revolutionary Road, and Danny Boyle for Steve Jobs. However, in terms of the director who’s had the biggest impact on her, we have to look outside of her feature film career.
In 2011, Winslet starred in an HBO miniseries called Mildred Pierce. Inspired by the 1941 novel of the same name, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film in 1945, our hero plays the titular role of a woman torn between pursuing her dreams and protecting her children during the Great Depression. The show was directed by Todd Haynes, the filmmaker behind Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There, and May December. According to Winslet, working alongside him was an eye-opening experience.
“I still get terrified in the middle of a film, thinking, oh my God, how am I going play this part,” she admitted to Time Out during a career retrospective. “But I have been really blessed. The directors that I’ve worked with just taught me so much, particularly Todd Haynes… I learned so much from him.” She summed this attitude up by saying, “I feel like I’ve had a charmed career, without question”.
Known for his postmodern approach to filmmaking, Haynes has been called “one of the modern era’s most important auteurs”. He eschews traditional narrative structure, opting for a less-conventional and more sporadic approach to storytelling. The film that brought him to the dance, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, is a bizarre retelling of the titular singer’s life through the medium of Barbie dolls. When that’s your first film, you know you’re in for one hell of a career. A gay man, Haynes has contributed some of the most celebrated queer films of the 21st century, most notably Carol, a ground-breaking queer drama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
Mildred Pierce impressed everyone who saw it. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called it Haynes’ best work to date, and it received praise across the board for its faithfulness to the novel and its quiet, measured approach to the heartbreaking story. Winslet was also given her flowers. At the 2011 Emmys, she was named ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie’, and the series itself was nominated for ‘Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series’. At the Golden Globes the following year, Winslet was once again recognised, this time as ‘Best Actress—Miniseries or Television Film’.
Every director brings something unique to a project, and it’s not always a guarantee they’ll mesh well with their actors. Winslet and Haynes seem to have gotten on like a house on fire. They are reportedly working together again on another series called ‘Trust’. We can only eagerly wait for a masterpiece performance that it is sure to yield.
