How Kate Winslet Overcame Major Body Shaming As A Young Woman

Kate Winslet has always been open about her struggles with body image during her younger years. In an interview with Vogue, the "Mare of Easttown" star detailed how she was criticized for her size, which was actually quite average. "I was consistently told I was the wrong shape," she recalled. Luckily, in recent years, Winslet has been hitting back at critics with a fierce vigor. In 2022, Winslet told the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast about her time on the set of "Titanic" back in the late '90s. "Apparently I was too fat... They were so mean. I wasn't even [expletive] fat," the star ranted. (That might explain why Winslet didn't find filming "Titanic" to be incredibly romantic!) With the first few decades of her career behind her, Winslet is now looking to the future to not only overcome her own internalized body-shaming, but hopefully prevent her earlier experiences from happening to other actresses.

"The culture is changing in the way that I couldn't in my wildest dreams have imagined in my 20s," Winslet told Vogue. Crediting the #MeToo movement with helping her get angry at how she was treated early in her career, now Winslet is using this rage to take her narrative into her own hands and create a better future for all women in the film industry. Talking to The Sunday Times, Winslet said she's pleased to see a slow but sure shift in attitudes. "People are subject to scrutiny that is more than a young, vulnerable person can cope with. But in the film industry it is really changing. When I was younger my agent would get calls saying, 'How's her weight?' I kid you not. So it's heartwarming that this has started to change," she explained. And Winslet should credit herself for helping with that change.

Not only did the multiple Golden Globe winner star in the film "Lee," based on the life of remarkable photographer Lee Miller, Kate Winslet tapped into her stunning transformation to also produce it. In fact, it seems she took on as much as she could to ensure the film would get made. She was heavily involved in the screenwriting process, she hand-picked the director, and was a major part of casting the film. This kind of intensity is something Winslet brings to her relationships both on and off the screen. Of course, her heavy involvement still did not spare her from being casually body-shamed while on set.

During filming, Winslet suffered a back injury that made exercise impossible. Not wanting to delay filming, this meant Winslet would still have to perform some scenes nude or in a bikini without the "ideal" body. When people on her own team marked their unease at Winslet showing off a softer body, she responded with (per the BBC), "[Lee] wasn't lifting weights or doing Pilates. She was eating cheese, bread and drinking wine, and not making a big deal of it. So of course, her body would be soft." Speaking up for the experiences of most every-day women, Winslet continued that people should be proud of "being a real shape, being soft and maybe having a few extra rolls." It's clear that Winslet has no time for body criticism, whether it's about her own or anyone else's.