Kate Winslet on “The regime” and fame after “Titanic”: “Traumatic”

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The actor about “The regime”, being forced into sex scenes and the mega-fame after “Titanic”: “For me it was very traumatic”

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HOLLYWOOD. The prices at home on the shelves are proof that Kate Winslet more than coped with the challenges in Hollywood.

Nevertheless, she was terrified when she jumped on the latest project, the comedy series “The regime”.

– It’s the hardest thing I’ve done, she says.

Given her long and successful career, the statement she makes during a video interview can certainly be perceived as a bit coquettish. But considering that she reaped her greatest success when she appeared in serious dramas, there may have been reason for the fear.

Still, she sought the challenge.

– I wanted to make a comedy. It was something I had been looking for, says the 48-year-old mother of three, who since 2012 has been married to Edward Abel Smith.

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full screenKate Winslet. Photo: Vianney Le Caer/AP

Loved playing female dictator

“The regime” is a twisted story set in a fictional, central European nation where the vengeful and tyrannical ruler Elena Vernham rules with a hypochondriac iron fist.

– I had never played someone like her before. I loved that it was about a dictator, and a female one too. It gave me the opportunity to explore the female fragility behind the mask.

“The regime” is created by Will Tracya screenwriter with fingers in “Succession” and the restaurant thriller “The menu”.

Here he lets the viewers see the dictator as an unstable leader early on. When Vernham falls for the spoiled and cruel soldier Herbert Zubak (played by the Belgian Matthias Schoenaerts) and make him the closest adviser, the follies are accelerated.

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fullscreenKate Winslet in “The regime.” Press photo. Photo: Hbo/AP

Winslet: “It was a red flag”

The subject alone makes it tempting to learn from which of the despots of today or history Winslet got inspiration. But the actress who was born in Reading, an hour outside of London and today lives in the coastal town of West Wittering, doesn’t get that hook.

– I did not collect from anyone. I didn’t think it was a wise choice. Elena is unlike anyone I have come into contact with in any context.

That in itself posed a problem. There was no description of the dictator in the script. Just dialogue.

Winslet helped develop everything – from body movements to clothes and the way Vernham talks.

– I was extremely hesitant to sound like myself. It was a red flag. In recent decades, we have had many series that recreated real events about the British royal house. If you then sound like me, it is easy for the audience to try to derive it to something specific and that would not have worked. We had to come up with something else.

The solution was what came to be called “a manifestation of who Vernham is”.

– She dresses in a certain way. She is grotesque and serious and overly sexual and talks differently.

– And then she has saved the father’s corpse in the basement – with whom she talks (laughter).

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full screen Kate Winslet in “The regime”. Photo: HBO.

pullquoteI was very, very afraid that I would screw up

The finished result was Winslet’s choice.

– It was terrifying. I was very, very afraid that I would screw up, she says.
She no longer needs to be. Aftonbladet’s Karolina Fjellborg writes in the review of “The regime” that Winslet is “priceless in the leading role”.

Had it not been for previous successes, Winslet would not have been entrusted with the decision. But today, no Hollywood executive seems to exist who wants to befriend someone who lined up box office hits like “Titanic” and as late as 2021 won an Emmy for the detective series “Mare of Easttown”.

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full screen Kate Winslet Photo: Alberto Pezzali / AP

Had requested an intimacy coordinator

Winslet wishes she had had some of that power earlier. Then she had requested an intimacy coordinator, something that is standard today.

– I would have profited from it every single time I did a love scene, was partially forced to be naked or did a kissing scene. It would have been nice to have someone in her corner because I was always forced to speak out on my own, she tells the NY Times.

Many times much remained unsaid.

– I don’t like that camera angle. I don’t want to stand here naked. I don’t want there to be so many people in the room. I want my dressing gown to be closer – just little things like that. But when you’re young, you’re afraid of upsetting people, coming across as rude or pathetic just because you need those things. Learning to speak up for yourself in those environments was very, very difficult.

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full screenKate Winslet, James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo: Mark J Terrill/AP

“For me it was very traumatic”

If the mega-fame of “Titanic” eventually changed that, it led to other problems.

– I kind of had no infrastructure. I lived in a small three in north London. I was just trying to understand how I could go out and not have an epileptic fit from all the paparazzi flashes hitting my face, she stated the other day in a television interview.

– I couldn’t have a normal life. For me it was very traumatic.

– I’m so happy that it won’t happen for a long time and that everything has changed.

“The regime” is a six-part miniseries. No decision has been made on a continuation.

When Hollywood Reporter talks to her, there is no doubt where she stands on the subject.

– All I can say is that I love doing TV and I loved playing Elena.