Kate Winslet is determined to be her authentic self, flaws and all — so when she wears a bathing suit on screen, she doesn’t hide any part of herself.
In Winslet’s latest film, Lee, she plays model turned photographer and WWII correspondent Lee Miller. While shooting the project, the actress told Harper’s Bazaar UK that she stopped exercising to look authentically soft on camera much to the dismay of one crew member.
“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,’” Winslet, 48, recalled in an interview published on Tuesday, August 6.
The Oscar winner remembered thinking, “So you can’t see my belly rolls? Not on your life!” Winslet explained that her body’s softness “was deliberate” and not something she wanted to conceal.
Throughout her career, Winslet has embraced looking less-than-perfect on screen. “I take pride in it because it is my life on my face, and that matters,” she shared. “It wouldn’t occur to me to cover that up.”
She teased that unlike many of the Hollywood A-listers her age, she’s never felt the need to undergo cosmetic surgery to stop aging.
“I think people know better than to say, ‘You might wanna do something about those wrinkles,'” Winslet quipped. “I’m more comfortable in myself as each year passes. It enables me to allow the opinions of others to evaporate.”
Like her Lee counterpart, Winslet wants to push women forward and not cover up any part of their fierceness.
“Lee’s phenomenal stoicism and mission to reveal the truth because so much was hidden — of all the characters I’ve ever played, I was genuinely inspired by her and in a lasting way,” Winslet said of the movie. “Post-#MeToo, we have a much greater perspective on what women in the public eye had to put up with.”
She continued, “My hope is that, at the very least, the film will show people who Lee really was and what she went through, and hopefully redefine how a younger generation understands her, so that she isn’t continually viewed through the male gaze.”
Lee is a biopic that highlights Lee Miller’s journey as the only photojournalist to witness the 1944 American assault at Saint-Malo in France. The model-turned-correspondent was later arrested for her efforts and suffered PTSD from the war. It wasn’t until after her death that her works were discovered.
“We label women all the time — it drives me mad. If you think about how Lee’s described, it’s: ‘outspoken’, ‘headstrong’, ‘determined’ – these big, fat words,” Winslet said, noting, “We don’t describe men as ballsy or outspoken, because men just say whatever they want to say and do whatever they want to do, and it’s expected and permitted, but when a woman does that, we slap her with a label, and it sticks. No! I’m just saying what I think, I’m just being honest!”
Although Winslet is in awe of the strength of her film character, she’s happy with her life in the U.K. and her career. “I really do just want to live my life with sincere intentions and a decent amount of good grace,” she concluded.
Lee hits theaters on Friday, September 27.
