Kate Winslet, a well-known actress, has faced body-shaming throughout her successful career. But she first experienced this while working as a child star.
“I was a little bit stocky, when I did start taking it much more seriously and got a child agent I really remember vividly a drama teacher … and she said to me, ‘Well, darling, you’ll have a career if you’re ready to settle for the fat girl parts,’” she tells BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs. “Look at me now,” the actress adds. “It’s appalling the things people say to children.”
Apart from body-shaming, Kate also recalls the industry has a double standard on gender, noting that she received unasked-for advice when she was making her directorial debut, whereas the man typically wouldn’t, says the actress.
There is “so much we still have to unlearn” about how we speak to women in film, noting, “So they might say things like, ‘Don’t forget to be confident in your choices.’
“And I want to sort of say, ‘Don’t talk to me about confidence,’ because if that’s one thing I haven’t ever lacked, actually, 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 the Titanic made her a global star. “It was horrific. There were people tapping my phone. They were just everywhere. And I was just on my own. I was terrified to go to sleep,” she notes.
Kate’s directorial debut, Goodbye June, is playing in theatres.