Kate Winslet Fights for Her Passion Project: ‘Do you have any idea how damn hard this is?’

When my mother died, I remember thinking, “Thank God I talked to her about her own life, because sometimes I think that when a parent dies, there might be a moment after that when you think, “Oh God, I would like to know more.” . I would like to ask them about their childhood, or about the first job they had, or about their past love.” The other day I thought, “Oh my God, how lucky I am,” because they’re going to have a whole movie library of what I look like, from when I was 17 to the end. I was pregnant while working with my children. They’ll be able to see, knowing that it’s them in that pregnant belly, and things like that. This is something unusual.

You get asked a lot about Eternal Sunshinenot to mention Titanic or Mare. What projects would you like to be asked about? more?

I would be pleased if people asked me more about Revolutionary RoadIn fact. People say, “You’ll have to work with Leo again.” Then they fire along the entire Leo tangent, which I understand perfectly well, but Revolutionary Road…damn, it just set us all aside. Incredibly complex material. I was very proud of this film and what Leo and I were able to create as Frank and April. It was so cruel. So I’m a little surprised.

I think another one maybe Iris. People don’t really ask me about Iris. This is such a subtle film. This was the first thing I did after my daughter was born. Getting ready for work with a child, I’m playing Iris Murdoch, looking for Judi DenchSenior Iris Murdoch – I shit myself.

I saw you talking about creation Lee a little, and I’ve seen you cry a few times thinking about it. How do you even turn down projects? Is it difficult for you?

Certain life experiences will stay with you. Certain characters you play stay with you. Lee is someone who will stay with me in a way that I can’t understand because she was so inspiring in the way she lived her life, the way she walked through the world, the way she carried her physical self. She had no shame. I’m actually very moved when I talk about this film because it was such a faithful retelling of her story. We had photographs of her and were tasked with creating a story about how she was able to capture each of these images. Lee never told anyone what happened to her.

Sometimes letting go and saying, “Okay, we’re done” can be downright joyful. Maybe I want to do it, but I can’t, and then I think, “Okay, how am I going to talk about the therapy scenes in the film?” Mare and wouldn’t you find them emotional four and a half years later?” Because that’s what I personally do. I don’t mean to sound condescending or weird, but sometimes I have a really hard time letting go and that’s probably why I don’t work anymore. I find that I need long breaks between tasks to just get back to life and reset. That’s just how I’ve always dealt with it.