They Were So Mean: Kate Winslet Opens Up About Body Shaming Criticisms On Titanic’s Gate Scene

[ad_1]

Kate Winslet was just emerging from her teenage years when she was cast in what would become the highest-grossing film of all time, Titanic. As the blockbuster celebrates its 25th anniversary, the five-time Golden Globe winner has opened up about the “bordering on abuse” body shaming she suffered from the press after its 1997 release.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor, now 47, commented on the long-running debate over the film’s ending, which saw his character Rose DeWitt Bukate survive the sinking of the ill-fated ship after her beloved Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) helped her up a floating door and made her promise she would survive. Many argued that there was room for Jack on their wooden float.

About one of the reasons they couldn’t both fit on the driftwood, Kate said: ‘Apparently I was too big. Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even fat.

The British actress – who reunited with film director James Cameron on Avatar: The Waterway – went on to explain how she would have handled things differently.

She said: “I would have said to reporters, I would have answered, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like that. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m finding out, I’m deeply anxious, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.” That’s bullying, you know, and bordering on overkill, I would say.

In an interview with The Sunday Times earlier this month, the Revolutionary Road star revisited the scrutiny she faced on her debut.

“When I was younger, my agent would get calls saying, ‘How heavy is he? I am not joking. So it’s heartening that this has started to change.

In the same interview, Kate – who is mum to Mia, 22 (with Jim Threapleton) Joe, 18 (with Sam Mendes) and Bear, nine (with husband Edward Abel Smith) – explained why she thinks she had it easier than the young movie stars of today.

“It was hard enough to have the Flipping News of the World on my doorstep, but it’s not enough now. That phrase that ‘today’s news will be tomorrow’s paper fish and chips’ doesn’t does not exist.

‘The thing you did when you were drunk or stupid? It can come back to haunt you. Having to be on guard for young actors is just a different thing. It must be extraordinarily difficult,” she said.

[ad_2]