Kate Winslet shares some rare behind-the-scenes insights into playing an unstable character.
In a recent chat on the Lessons from Our Mothers podcast, the Titanic actress revealed that she once “went crazy” after starring as a troubled character and to recover, she took “the right support.”
“There’s something that happens as an actor, and it sounds very self-indulgent, so I say it very rarely,” she began. “But when you play a really difficult role – I’m thinking of Mare or Easttown, for example, which flattened me, my god – you have to kind of come out the other side.”
The Oscar-winning actress went on to say, “I call it re-entering. Re-entering your own life, returning to your friendships, reintegrating back into the rhythm of the family. Leaving a family, leaving people behind, letting go of a character.”
“It actually takes a while to get a character out of your system, especially if you’ve played them for a long time, which really happens in television.”
Kate especially mentioned her role in Mare Easttown, where she played a detective dealing with personal trauma, as it pushed her to her limits.
“It was supposed to be a six-month shoot,” she said. “Covid happened after the five months we had been shooting, and everything was pushed, and when we came back, our five remaining weeks turned into ten.”
“By the end of the whole thing, I had been playing that character for over a year. And I got a little angry, to be honest. It was kind of weird,” Kate admitted.
She went on to say that she sought professional help to recover from the character: “It’s the only time in my life that I really needed the right help to get back to myself.”
“It sounds completely insane, and even as I say it I feel quite uncomfortable saying it because I’m aware of how crazy and self-indulgent that can sound,” Kate added.
