Kate Winslet, a well-known actress, has faced body-shaming throughout her successful career. But she first experienced this when she was working as a child star.
“I was a little pushy, when I started taking it a lot more seriously and got a children’s agent. I vividly remember a drama teacher… and she said to me, ‘Well honey, you’ll have a career when you’re ready to settle for the fat girl roles,'” she says. BBC Radio 4 shows Desert Island Discs. “Now look at me,” the actress adds. “It’s terrible what people say to children.”
Aside from body-shaming, Kate also recalls the industry having a double standard when it comes to gender, noting that she received unsolicited advice when making her directorial debut, when the man normally wouldn’t, the actress says.
There’s “so much we still have to unlearn” about the way we talk to women in film, noting, “So they might say things like, ‘Remember to be confident in your choices.’
“And I want to say, ‘Don’t talk to me about trust,’ because if that’s something I’ve never missed, it’s exactly that. That person wouldn’t say that to a man.”
On the other hand, Kate also remembers how the media treated her after Titanic made her a global star. “It was horrific. There were people tapping my phone. They were just everywhere. And I was just alone. I was terrified to go to sleep,” she notes.
Kate’s directorial debut, See you Juneplays in theaters.
