Kate Winslet recently spoke to The Sunday Times and condemned female actors’ over-reliance on plastic surgery in Hollywood. The Oscar winner said that young actors have “become obsessed with chasing an idea of perfection to get more likes on Instagram. It upsets me so much.”
“It is devastating,” Winslet continued. “If a person’s self-esteem is so bound up in how they look, it’s frightening. And it’s puzzling because I have moments when I think it’s better, when I look at actresses at events dressed how they want, whichever shape. But then so many people are on weight-loss drugs. It’s so varied. Some are making choices to be themselves, others do everything they can to not be themselves. And do they know what they are putting in [their bodies]? The disregard for one’s health is terrifying. It bothers me now more than ever. It is fucking chaos out there.”
Winslet said the rampant use of plastic surgery extends far beyond “all the fucking actresses” out there as women everywhere “save up for Botox or the shit they put in their lips.”
“My favorite thing is when your hands get old,” Winslet said. “That’s life, in your hands. Some of the most beautiful women I know are over 70, and what upsets me is that young women have no concept of what being beautiful actually is.”
Winslet has been vocal in the past about the body shaming she endured after James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster turned her into a global movie star. During a “60 Minutes” interview last year, she fought through tears while remembering a time when she stood up to the press for bullying her over her weight. It was during her awards season run for “Titanic” when a on-air host for the “E!” network said Winslet looked “a little melted and poured into” a dress she wore on the red carpet.
“It’s absolutely appalling,” Winslet said. “What kind of a person must they be to do something like that to a young actress who’s just trying to figure it out?”
When asked if she’d ever confronted the press for bullying her, Winslet responded: “I did get face to face. I let them have it. I said, ‘I hope this haunts you. It was a great moment because it wasn’t just for me, it was for all those people who were subjected to that level of harassment. It was horrific. It was really bad.”
Winslet revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times in 2022 that she was told to settle for “fat girl” parts when she was a young performer in acting school. The body shaming only got worse after “Titanic.” Winslet said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that “Titanic” viewers used the film’s ending to mock her weight by saying Rose was too fat for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack to also survive the freezing Atlantic waters on the floating door.
“Apparently I was too fat,” Winslet said. “Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even fucking fat. 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 any harder than it already is. That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
Head over to The Sunday Times’ website to read Winslet’s latest interview in its entirety.
