A luminous English rose with ivory skin and strawberry hair, Winslet
made an impressive feature debut as Juliet Hulme, an intelligent,
spoiled and sickly teenager who helps murder her best girlfriend’s
mother in Peter Jackson’s acclaimed “Heavenly Creatures” (1994). A
third-generation thespian, the Reading, England native began studying
drama at the age of eleven. Kate Winslet began her career almost
immediately when she was cast as a spokesperson for a cereal in British
TV commercials. Stage roles followed, including the female leads in a
musical version of “Adrian Mole”. She made her TV debut in the drama
“Shrinks” and her resume also includes a recurring stint on the sitcom
“Get Back”.
Winslet landed the role of Juliet in “Heavenly Creatures” after an
impressive audition. Her on screen performance marked her as one to
watch: she was riveting as the tubercular, highly intelligent teen who
develops a strong rapport with a fellow student, allowing the pair to
create a fantasy world and, when threatened with separation, conspire to
commit murder. Kate Winslet then played a princess in Disney’s “A Kid
in King Arthur’s Court” (1995) before winning raves and an Oscar
nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her subtle performance as the
spirited Marianne Dashwood in “Sense and Sensibility” (also 1995).
Winslet continued to appear in period pieces with “Jude” (1996). Adapted
from “Jude the Obscure” by Thomas Hardy, the film featured Winslet as
Sue, the title character’s unconventional cousin whose mercurial nature
creates problems. Later that year, she was Ophelia to Kenneth Branagh
“Hamlet”, in the actor-director’s all-star feature version of the
Shakespeare classic.
Moving from Shakespeare, Winslet adopted an American accent as a
Philadelphia socialite who finds unlikely romance with a lower-class
artist Leonardo DiCaprio in James Cameron’s spectacular “Titanic”
(1997). More than just a film, “Titanic” became a phenomenon: grossing
more than $600 million and earning 14 Oscar nominations, including one
for Winslet as Best Actress. Kate Winslets onscreen chemistry with
DiCaprio had a cross-generational appeal and the young actress found
herself on magazine covers and fodder for the tabloids. Rather than
become confined to Hollywood blockbusters, though, Winslet accepted
roles in two rather small films that both shared some similarities in
that they revolved around a spiritual search. “Hideous Kinky” (1999)
cast the actress as the mother of two young daughters who packs up and
heads to Marrakech seeking wisdom from a Sufi while “Holy Smoke” (also
1999) saw her portray a cult member whose family hires a deprogrammer.
Both roles allowed the young actress to display her emotional intensity
and daring range, as well as to play relatively contemporary characters.
In 2000, it was back to the petticoats as Winslet portrayed a
laundress in the asylum of Charenton who colludes with the incarcerated
Marquis de Sade to help smuggle out his writings in “Quills”. Once
again, the actress demonstrated her remarkable gifts for playing
intelligent and sensual characters, and to continue to reveal her utter
fearlessness as an actress, unafraid to explore dark corners and push
conventional boundaries. In “Enigma” (2001), the WWII-era spy drama in
which she co-starred as a mathematician working on breaking the German
code, she took a role that was less emotionally charged and edgy,
instead more subtle. Again she showed a gift for believably thinking on
screen in the contemplative drama. “Iris” (also 2001), in which she
essayed the youthful incarnation of the British philosopher and novelist
Iris Murdoch, was a return to form (although she split the role with
Judi Dench, who played Murdoch in her Alzheimer’s period, a juicier era
for an actress to explore). Nevertheless, Kate Winslet caught Murdoch’s
unconventional, free-spirited youth and realistically portrayed her
romance with her eventual husband. Her work brought the actress a third
career Academy Award nomination , this time as Best Supporting Actress.
Winslet next appeared as Elizabeth “Bitesy” Bloom, an ambitious reporter
investigating the case of a death row inmate in “The Life of David
Gale” (2003). Winslet was praised for her performance, but it couldn’t
overcome the bad feelings engendered by the film’s overwrought,
unconvincing story and the overkill behind its anti-death penalty
message.
The full-figured—and, after childbirth, zaftig—Winslet proudly
refused to conform to the typical Hollywood standard for extreme
thinness, and her fan base loved her for it—not only was she happy with
her figure, she unabashedly displayed it in several films and spoke
openly of defying her industry’s physical expectations. A small
firestorm erupted in 2003, however, when a radically thinned-down
Winslet appeared on the cover of GQ magazine. It turned out that the
actress was digitally slimmed by photo retouchers, but she blamed the
controversy on herself for being so outspoken on the subject—still, she
claimed she had no plans to change her own natural shape.
In 2004 Kate Winslet took on another free-spirited role for “Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” playing Clementine, the ex-girlfriend
with the multicolored hair whose break-up with her repressed boyfriend
Jim Carrey prompts him to undergo a procedure to erase all trace of her
from his memory. Again employing a flawless American accent, Winslett
turned in a rich, multi-layered performance in one her best films to
date, though it was not a major box office champion. The role did,
however, earn the actress several award nominations: she was given nods
by the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards.
In “Finding Neverland” (2004), Winslet was on top of her game once more,
playing Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widowed mother of four boys who,
along with her sons, becomes the muse for “Peter Pan” author J.M. Barrie
Johnny Depp and whose life takes a tragic turn.
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