Kate Winslet Says Her Huge Fame For TITANIC Was So Horrible It Led Her To Choose Smaller Roles For The Future

Kate Winslet she was a rising star in a handful of hit films and shows before starring in the hit 1997 historical romantic drama Titanic. Her lead role earned Winslet her second Oscar nomination and launched her into a sphere of stardom for which she, or any actor in her position, was entirely unprepared.

In a recent interview with Net-a-Porter (via Variety), Winslet said she has been actively taking roles in smaller, independent films following the record-breaking success of Titanic why the fame she brought from starring in James Cameron’s epic was ‘awful’. Winslet was only 22 years old when Titanic it opened in 1997 and has become a cultural phenomenon. It won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and became the highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the first to gross $1 billion worldwide. To say it turned Winslet and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio into superstars overnight would be an understatement. She explained:

“[Young women now] know how to use your voice. I felt like [in the aftermath of ‘Titanic’] I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at the time, my life was quite unpleasant. Journalists always said, ‘After “Titanic,” you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these little things’… and I said, ‘Yes, you bet your life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible.’ I was grateful, of course. I was in my early twenties and managed to get an apartment. But I didn’t want to be literally followed while I fed the ducks.

During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2022, Winslet recalled being repeatedly subjected to body shaming following Titanic. He said the film’s ending sparked debate about his physical appearance. Viewers have long debated whether there was enough room on the floating door for Winslet’s Rose and DiCaprio’s Jack to survive the frigid Atlantic waters. Only Rose used the makeshift raft, with Jack dying of hypothermia.

“Apparently I was too fat. Why were they so mean to me? They were so bad. I wasn’t even fucking fat. I would have told reporters, I would have responded, I would have said, “Don’t you dare treat me like that.” I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this more difficult than it already is.’ This is bullying, you know, and actually bordering on abusive, I would say.

“It can be extremely negative,” Winslet later told the Sunday Times about women facing fame. “People are subject to scrutiny beyond what a young, vulnerable person can bear. But in the film industry things are really changing. When I was younger, my agent would get calls saying, “How does he weigh?” I am not joking. So it’s heartwarming that this has started to change.”

Winslet will soon return to HBO following the success of Easttown Mare as the protagonist of political satire The regimepremiering March 3.