It was late 1997, back in December, when Titanic hit theaters. Some young actors, anything but stars, excitedly walked the red carpets and presented. It was the British Kate Winslet and the American Leonardo DiCaprio who, beyond the sunken ship, would become the soul of a gigantic film that grossed more than 2.2 billion dollars and became an icon of popular culture. James Cameron's film was a milestone since its release and brought the two young people to stardom. She was 22, he was 23. They became billboard characters that filled the rooms and folders of teenagers around the world. And that wasn't easy to digest. In fact, “it was terrible,” as Winslet revealed in a new interview.
The 48-year-old actress has grown professionally and has been able to diversify her career since then, but the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater, the moody rich girl who fell in love with homeless artist Jack Dawson on board the luxury liner, was not easy to pass. In a chat with fashion magazine Porter, Winslet notes that her eldest daughter, Mia Threapleton (the result of her relationship with British film director Jim Threapleton), is already 23, older than she was when she made the film it was introduced to the mainstream. Fame; In fact, he turned 21 during filming. “It’s different now. Mia is very self-confident. “Young women today know how to use their voice.” For her, however, things weren’t so easy in the late 1990s. “I felt like I had to be a certain way or a certain way, and because the intrusion of the press was so strong at the time, my life was pretty unpleasant,” he admits.
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“Journalists would always say to me, 'After Titanic you could have done anything, and you chose these little ones…'” And I thought, “Shit, that's probably because becoming famous was terrible.” Of course I was grateful. This was when I was in my early twenties and managed to get an apartment. But I didn’t want to be followed when I was literally feeding the ducks,” she admits. In a podcast interview a few years ago, she recalled being harassed by the media and feeling “intimidated.” “I immediately went into self-defense mode because I was under tremendous personal and physical scrutiny day and night, every day. “They criticized me a lot, the British press was actually quite cruel to me,” she explained at the time, in early 2021. She also stated that she considered herself too young and inexperienced to cope with that level of notoriety, but also important Accept jobs. in Hollywood: “I was still learning how to act and I felt like I wasn’t ready.”
Winslet now has 70 projects in her acting portfolio, but in 1997 she had barely realized a dozen, albeit not insignificant ones: from Heavenly Creatures by Peter Jackson to Sense and Sensibility alongside Emma Thompson to the role of Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. . But nothing compares to the immense fame he achieved thanks to James Cameron's Titanic. According to her, it was only after her marriage to Threapleton and the birth of her daughter Mia in 2000 that the persecution stopped after she focused on caring for her, and the media scrutiny seemed more bearable.
“That’s a ridiculous word!” she replies when asked about today’s fame. “I carry it very lightly. It's not a burden, not anymore. The Titanic continues to bring joy to people. The only time I say “Oh God, hide” is when we're on board a ship.” In fact, he states that he doesn't regret any step in his career, nor does he envy anything, there are none Role he would have liked to have played. “I was happy for the person who did it: 'Yes, you did it!' There are no regrets. None. “I don’t think so,” he reflects.
Winslet – who will release “The Regime” (HBO), in which she plays a dictatorial political leader, in theaters in March – also spoke to Porter about her close relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom she has a long-standing friendship. She, who doesn't have social media (and neither do her older children), wasn't aware of the common meme that shows DiCaprio looking at her with delight at one or more awards shows and says, “Do you have someone… who looks at you like Leo.” looks at you.” “Kate.” No, she had never seen it before and when asked about it she burst out laughing. “That’s because he knows I can see through it all,” he says. “I think when you're that young and you experience something so devastating… The truth is, we both went through it all together,” he admits.
And as he has said on other occasions, “all of that” wasn’t enough. “If I look scared, cold and exhausted in the film during the doom scenes, it's because I really was scared, cold and exhausted. After three months, I felt physically swollen, bruised, and alone without my family. I kept thinking to myself, 'You wanted this, now just keep going,'” she told the Los Angeles Times shortly after filming, and then didn't talk about it again for years. The Oscar winner for “The Reader” admitted that filming “Titanic” was a traumatic experience, even going so far as to say, “You'd have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim again,” in reference to James Cameron. It took 25 years to do it again.