From: The Guardian, December 2008

Kate Winslet is back with two films – one directed by her husband, Sam Mendes – and she’s a hot prospect for the Oscars. Kira Cochrane meets an actor at the top of her game

There is a moment in Revolutionary Road that sums up why Kate Winslet is such a stranger to bad reviews. Her character, April Wheeler, is a former drama student and mother of two, who is living a cramped existence with her cramped husband, Frank, in a cramped house in Connecticut. It’s the kind of lonely, picturesque community where all that whispers down the sidewalks at night are the echoes of snippy, suburban arguments. This drudgery isn’t what April expected from life, and she has lately been funnelling all her energy into escaping with her family to Paris – a chance to start anew that seems at once both distant fantasy and entirely within reach.

Then she and her husband spend a day at the beach with their neighbours. As Frank starts talking about his improved prospects at work – and it becomes clear to April that the Paris dream might potentially fall away – the camera closes in on Winslet’s face, immobile and obscured by sunglasses, a shot that would make it hard for an average actor to convey anything much at all. In that moment though, poise meets devastation. April wordlessly, almost imperceptibly, implodes.

Kate Winslet has been nominated for a total of six BAFTA Film Awards and has won two of them, for Sense and Sensibility in 1996 and for The Reader in 2009. I came across a gem that I hadn’t seen in several years; a video of her first BAFTA win for her performance as Marianne Dashwood! The ceremony took place on April 23, 1996 at London’s Palladium Theatre. I thought I’d post the video to celebrate yesterday’s BAFTAS in case some of you haven’t seen it recently.

I thought take this opportunity to post Marion Cotillard’s lovely speech to Kate Winslet at the 2009 Academy Awards as the two are now in talks to co-star in Contagion. I thought Marion sounded truly genuine and summed up Kate’s compelling performance so well.

“Kate Winslet. With each new role, you continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Your brilliant performance in The Reader encompasses all the qualities that have always drawn us to you: passion, vulnerability and extraordinary depth. As your character moves through time, love and the most dire of circumstances, we, as your audience, Kate, never lose a connection to you. This is yet another unforgettable portrait from one of our most gifted actresses. And one of our most inspiring. Thank you.”

You can, of course, re-live the spectacular moment by re-watching it on YouTube.

From: Beauty Maverick, January 2009

When Kate Winslet rang me earlier today, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. A bit of beauty banter? Of course. But the conversation that ensued unveiled a genuine heart and sense of purpose below the striking exterior of this Lancome spokesmodel.

Though still in her early 30s, Kate’s sage-like qualities resounded over the phone. With all the awards she’s been winning and is nominated for, you’d think she’d be a little less grounded, not so.

Read below for a reality check from one of the most influential— and naturally gorgeous— heroines of our time.

From Telegraph, December 12, 2008

Like many actors, Kate Winslet likes to draw on her own experiences. Unlike most, she has some serious baggage to dip into.

A summer’s day in 2007, on a film-set in suburban Connecticut, an hour outside Manhattan. Surrounded by a film crew, Kate Winslet is about to act a sex scene with Leonardo DiCaprio. Directing the scene is Sam Mendes – who also happens to be Winslet’s husband. It is the first time they have worked together, and she has been worrying about the scene since they began filming several weeks ago.

Winslet wanted to play this part – April Wheeler in a film of Richard Yates’s 1961 suburban-hell novel, Revolutionary Road – so much that she spent two years persuading Mendes, and then DiCaprio, to do the film. Being driven to the set this morning, she kept thinking, would Leo be put off by Sam? Or would he not care? They are old friends, after all. OK, but if Leo’s relaxed, will Sam feel threatened?