Titanic gave a lot to Kate Winslet but not all of it was positive. The actress opened up about struggling with the fame she found at 22 years of age in 1997 after the cult romance film came out. In a cover story for PORTER published Monday, Kate Winslet said, “I felt like I had to look a certain way or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant.”
Winslet, 48, also went on to recall being questioned about her career choices post-Titanic.
‘Being famous was horrible’ – Kate Winslet on Titanic success
In a recent interview for PORTER Magazine, Kate Winslet reflected on how she was questioned by journalists about her career choices after the release of Titanic. “Journalists would always say, ‘After Titanic, you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these small things’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, you bet your fuckin’ life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible.”
Winslet reaffirmed that though she was “grateful” for the film’s success, especially because she was “able to get a flat” in her early 20s, she still “didn’t want to be followed literally feeding ducks.”
Despite the unpleasant aspects, “It’s not a burden, any of it,” Kate said, as “[Titanic] continues to bring people huge amounts of joy” to date.
Kate Winslet opens up about her bond with Leonardo DiCaprio
Winslet and DiCaprio starred as Rose and Jack in James Cameron’s Titanic in 1997. The duo formed a friendship while filming and have managed to continue it to date. When asked whether she’s seen the meme that states, “Find yourself someone who looks at you the way Leo looks at Kate,” Winslet joked, “[Leo’s looking at me like that] because he just knows I can see right through it all.”
“I think when you experience something so seismic, so young…we really went through that together,” she said of DiCaprio.
Kate Winslet has been constantly candid about her struggles after Titanic
In a 2021 episode of WTF with Marc Maron podcast, the Mare of Easttown actress disclosed that she went “into self-protective mode right away” after her breakout role in Titanic, because she felt “bullied” by the U.K. media. “It was like night and day from one day to the next,” Winslet recalled. “Also, I was subject to quite a lot of also personal physical scrutiny, and criticized quite a lot — the British press were actually quite unkind to me. I felt quite bullied if I’m honest,” she added.
Kate Winslet also spoke about being body-shamed while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “They were so mean. I wasn’t even fucking fat,” she said. “If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way…I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I am a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I am deeply insecure, I am terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is. That’s buying you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
