Kate Winslet has known Leonardo DiCaprio since their Titanic days, and the two have grown a strong bond since. But while promoting Revolutionary Road, Winslet once joked that she and DiCaprio felt like husband and wife perhaps for the first time.
Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to take advantage of his friendship with Kate Winslet for ‘Revolutionary Road’
Winslet and DiCaprio reunited years after Titanic for the 2008 Sam Mendes-directed feature Revolutionary Road. DiCaprio and Winslet portrayed the characters Frank and April Wheeler respectively. Although the two would be a couple once again for the film, it was a far different pairing than their Titanic counterparts. In Mendes’ flick, the characters found themselves in a marriage that was on the verge of collapsing, which called for intense emotions from both actors.
Given that Winslet and DiCaprio had such a close friendship, DiCaprio knew he could channel their real-life bond for the film.
“We very much took advantage of our friendship and our relationship for this film,” DiCaprio once said according to The Seattle Times. “I know the fact that she’s such a good friend of mine, we know each other so well, we know that we could let go. There’s no hidden anything. It’s two people just trying to do their best and just pushing each other.”
Kate Winslet once said Leonardo DiCaprio felt more like her husband than her real husband
Revolutionary Road required both herself and DiCaprio to once again spend an enormous amount of time together. But this was exactly what Winslet wanted when she first became interested in the project. To do the film’s story justice, she felt that she and DiCaprio had to be almost inseparable.
“Very selfishly, I felt it has to be the right thing, because I want to be on the set with him every day. I want to spend as much time with him as possible. It wasn’t about equal roles, even. It was, I want to bleed that experience dry. I really do, because I know what’s there to be had, and anything less than that wouldn’t have seemed as special,” Winslet said.
During the promotional tour for the film, there was much attention brought to DiCaprio and Winslet’s reunion onscreen. Because of this, Winslet found herself commenting on DiCaprio more frequently than usual, which she joked gave off a husband and wife vibe.
“He feels more like my husband than my real husband. I have to say, I’ve been talking about him so much,” Winslet said in an interview with GMTV.
Mendes was actually Winslet’s real husband at the time, who encouraged Winslet’s more intimate scenes with DiCaprio in the film. So much so it made Winslet a bit uncomfortable every now and then.
“I was very thrown, actually, by some of the moments on this film where Leo and I, we have some rather passionate pieces. Sam is standing right there. And, you know, you just have to get on with it. You just have to hope for the best. But it was okay,” she said.
