Kate Winslet is not someone shy to awards ceremonies. She has an Oscar for The Reader and seven nominations overall. She has two Emmys for Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown. She even has a Grammy for a spoken-word children’s recording, along with five Golden Globes and five BAFTA Awards. That leaves her just one Tony short of having an EGOT.
“So you are saying I have an EGO,” she laughs as we begin our interview for this week’s episode of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side. Yes, I guess I am saying that, but who knows if a Tony is that far off as she isn’t ruling out Broadway, even though her illustrious career is much more focused on film and television roles these days.
She joins me at our Deadline studio with a mission to get people to see her latest film Lee, in which she plays iconic photojournalist Lee Miller, who took some of the most memorable photos during World War II and at Nazi concentration camps, among many other locales. Remarkably, her story has not been told in a major motion picture until now, and it is a passion project for Winslet, one that she also produced and over the course of eight years willed into being made and now released — finally.
The film premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival and has been in theatrical and PVOD release, but it is an uphill climb for indie films like this to get seen. This is a reason Winslet is out there making sure people do get the chance. Her performance won critical raves and some Oscar buzz in a very competitive year for the lead actress race, but this is an exceptionally powerful portrayal, as well as one with great relevance for these times.
We talk about all of that, her history of picking roles that keep leading her to the stage at awards shows, some particular highlights of her career and why Lee could be the most important movie on her filmography yet, plus much more.
To watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Kate Winslet, watch our conversation above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for a new episode of The Actor’s Side.