‘I hope this haunts you’: Kate Winslet says Titanic-era body-shamers were ‘absolutely appalling’

Girl, preach!

I always thought it was odd that she was criticised for her weight in that era. She looked perfectly slim to me. People were just used to actresses being ultra-skinny at that point.

I like a little blubber on my whales, Katie!

When you watch her discuss this in the recent 60 minutes interview, you can see how much it hurt her. Even after all of this time. She's the best type of celebrity who remains private. I can't recall her calling the paps to her airport arrivals like others do.

People actually thought she was fat?!

Holy shit, this was the Edwardian era, which tended to favor a tall, high-necked, large bosomed full figure. And she looked fucking amazing in those fashions.

I hate that movie but Kate Winslet was picture perfect for the period.

The thing is that people think things like Sargent's Madame X were the beauty standard back then. Sargent's painting was perceived as decadent in part because people thought Madame X looked starved to the point of collapse (thus her gown slipping off her shoulder). A full figure was seen as attractive (as makes perfect sense in terms of class and diet).

Yes, people did think she was fat because her weight fluctuated a bit over filming Titanic, she is only 5’5 and her co-star was then a beanpole.

Inspite of loudly and proudly proclaiming that she loves her curves and will never become a Hollywood stick she clearly has body image issues. Who doesn’t in that profession.

I never saw that film. Was she a large girl? Big through the hips, *roomy*?

She looks a fuck-ton better than her then small-dicked co-star.

You can do it!

Team Winslet - always. She rocks.

She was absolutely GORGEOUS in Titanic.

If I ever wanted to fuck a woman it would have been Kate Winslet laying naked on the couch while Leo drew her “like one of his French girls.” She was lush and sexy.

Yes I remember people commenting on her weight for the first 10 years of her career - but particularly during Titanic. This was pre-internet.

There was a lot of comments and questions back then that would never fly today. Do you remember how much Britney Spears's virginity was discussed and probed?

Alicia Silverstone struck big but then gained a few pounds and was over pretty quickly.

Here she is at the GG for Titanic - she is definitely larger than most actresses then or today.

People are just straight up ignorant. She wasn't fat at all. She has always been beautiful, too. She's stunning in Titanic. Especially that opening shot. I loved what she was wearing, especially that awesome hat.

The reason Madame X’s strap was slipping off her shoulder wasn’t because she was seen as excessively thin, it was to signal her loose morals to the viewers of the painting — though married, she was known to have many affairs and flirtations. And she wore lavender body powder which also suggested louche, decadent tastes. The painting was a scandal that ruined Sargent’s reputation in Paris. He regained his prominent position by high-tailing it to London and the U.S. to do the glamor portraits of the rich that we enjoy to this day.

R16, you are correct, but her slim figure was also criticized. One critic called her "an exquisite corpse starved into her gown".

The part was first offered to Goop, then Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore. Other actresses who were considered or auditioned supposedly included:

Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Anwar, Christina Applegate, Rosanna Arquette (screen tested), Rose Byrne, Gabrielle Carteris, Holly Marie Combs, Jennifer Connelly, Claire Danes, Geena Davis, Amanda Donohoe, Minnie Driver, Eliza Dushku, Claire Forlani (screen tested), Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sally Hawkins, Amelia Heinle, Natasha Henstridge, Eva Herzigova, Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich, Alison King (screen tested), Jordan Ladd, Robyn Lively, Carey Lowell, Madonna, Sophie Marceau, Michelle Monaghan (screen tested), Emily Mortimer, Thandie Newton (screen tested), Joely Richardson, Keri Russell, Jeri Ryan, Winona Ryder, Nicollette Sheridan, Ione Skye, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman (screen tested), Rachel Weisz, Reese Witherspoon and Alicia Witt.

I have to wonder what Jennifer Connelly would have done with it. Acres more beautiful than Winslet but 1/10th the actress.

Any white woman who was bigger than a size 6 was called fat in the 90s. And don’t let her have some hips and titties, she was OBESE.

R20 - As they SHOULD!

R21 Thick bipolar black actress, can’t remember her name, who was her best friend certainly was not under 100lbs. Thicker than a snicker she was. Many black men were in love with her.

It's really true, R20. It was a mercilessly brutal time for women. Heroin chic and all that. Hell, in 2007 we were still body shaming women openly. Remember Britney at the VMAs that year? People were saying she was fat and disgusting, when looking back, she looks curvy and fit. Insane. No wonder her brain broke.

We've come a long way in a fairly short period of time with the body stuff. It's been rather lovely to see more body types everywhere, and everyone knows finally how shitty it is to mock and criticize peoples' shapes. It's just not acceptable now.

I remember thinking everyone was bonkers calling her fat at the time, and thinking life must be hell for my sisters who were teens when Titanic came out with that sort of messaging. I hope everyone who vilified Winslet for her weight gets their karma. Especially that cunt James Cameron.

This was also just before when Size 0 became a goal when Nicole Miller created the size for vanity purposes.

R23 We haven’t come a long way. 70% of the US population is overweight or obese including children. There’s places in the South that are practically immobile.

R25 Triple 0 exists now. Normal sized people are a small minority of the US population now.

I love Kate Winslet, but I thought it was always known she was kind of big. In "Little Children" her character sort of laments her size and is finally ordering a bathing suit for the first time in years. It's fucked up, but it's Hollywood. If it's any consolation, Bridget Fonda is now huge, and back then she was the ideal and Kate was a bigger girl. At any rate, I highly fucking doubt it "haunts" anyone, ffs, that's just how it was.

And the irony today is women are so fat today the only thing they can fit into is what is considered athletic wear. Leggings used to be for dancers and aerobics and now it’s for fat asses cause they can’t fit into denim, which isn’t even denimn anymore it’s mostly spandex and lyrca.

She's a little porky. Could stand to lose a few.

Next to Zane she looked fine . She suffered in comparison to Leo DiTwinkrio

R18 Thandie Newton screen tested. Interesting 🤔

[quote] “People say, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You didn’t wear any makeup. You had wrinkles,’” she said, flagging the film industry’s double standards.

This reminds me of when Valerie Cherish got terrified when a critic called her latest performance “brave.”

Her mom in the movie was right to squeeze her into that corset.

"She looks a fuck-ton better than her then small-dicked co-star."

"Then small-dicked ..." I laughed because it first reads like Leo's dick has grown since and now he's average or hung.

She was a slut too R34.

Jennifer Connelly is at least as good an actress as Kate, but the Titanic role was better suited to Kate.

100% R37. I've been trying to imagine some of those actresses from R18 as Rose and nobody else works properly. It was Winslet's role. She ticks all the boxes.

R22Lisa Nicole Carson.

Fired from Ally and ER.

Lisa Nicole looked great, small waist and huge boobs.

She didn't tick MY box, r38.

She did look great in Titanic but in that picture at R14, she doesn’t look good, the styling is bad and she looks like his mother.

She has been discussing this for ages now, i get it that was traumatic for her, but it’s getting old. Also, i never thought her a fat ever.

[quote]R42 She did look great in Titanic but in that picture at [R14], she doesn’t look good, the styling is bad and she looks like his mother.

The styling is horrible on all levels. I seem to recall she’s looked best in draped chiffon over the years - not that tight taffeta and lace crap.

^^ was supposed to be a quote:

[quote]She did look great in Titanic but in that picture at [R14], she doesn’t look good, the styling is bad and she looks like his mother.

She needed to be more slim like Lucas slim.

Oh - I guess it was. Yay. Now I look deranged…

Rosanna Arquette screen tested for Titanic? For what, the Frances Fisher role?

[quote]Now I look deranged…

Now?

R31 has it. She and her fiancé in the movie were well matched.

DiCaprio was the one who didn’t fit. He looked like a 16 year old boy. Recast *him*.

Yeah, Leo was the odd bodied one, not Winslet. He looked like a 12 year old. I never got all the Leo hype.

Lisa Nicole Carson was the object of many black men's desires - and I'm sure some non-black men as well. She was gorgeous and wore her thickness very well. She was also a fun actress and seemed pretty cool. I've read snippets about her bipolar condition and fall in Hollywood, but don't know the whole story.

Agree with people saying Leo looked like one out of place in Titanic - I guess that just underscores that fact that Jack IS an outsider. But, they could have done that by making a fully formed adult look rougher around the edges instead of having someone so boyish. While he's really not my thing, Leo looks better now that he's older. That said, I can't say he didn't work in the film.

Imagine some A-cup actress like Goop doing the nude scene. Doesn't work. Kate looked great in the movie.

That movie made her a star and set her up, financially. IMO, she should just move on. I like to hold a grudge, but this is really too long. This movie came out in the '90s.

What male actor from that period should’ve been cast in Leo’s role?

R54 Ryan Philippe. Haha, only joking but he is a stunner

It would have bothered me at the time too had I been in her shoes; but the fact she is still going on about it is pretty ridiculous. It was a quarter century ago.

[quote]She has been discussing this for ages now, i get it that was traumatic for her, but it’s getting old.

I always find this annoying about her. She comes out with these grievances she has from 30 years ago, but tries to play things off like “I just silently suffered through it all at the time.” It comes off as very passive-aggressive attention seeking behavior.

She does this whenever she has a new movie to peddle.

She's griped about:

- having to do nudity and the dirty comments she got - Weinstein's shameless Oscar campaign for her - insensitivity of males on set when doing sex scenes - her body image - how poor she was growing up and how misunderstood she is - her regrets on supporting Woody Allen

I do rate her as a wonderful actress though

I remember an interview where she was griping about needing to have a C-section with her first child. She carried on about “I felt like a failure as a woman, because people always commented on my body that I had ‘child-bearing hips’ but I couldn’t give birth!” It’s always some “woah is me” moment with her.

It's "woe is me."

Whoa is me

I hear you, Keanu.

R61 Lol

She’s been pushing this new biopic hard. I watched her at 92Y and she was insufferable. She is well into her Grand Dame phase.

She sounds like a progressive loon with her word salads.

I'm tired of this female Leo diCaprio. She's ubiquitous and worshipped as a great actress of her time, but, like diCaprio, she's an ugly boiled potato-faced lump who's hard to look at - and no pleasure to watch her act, either.

She is a slightly better actress than her male counterpart. At least she doesn't grunt out her lines like a deeply constipated man trying to empty his guts, but the small distinction is undone by her endless emptying of her opinions and catalogue of slights.

To be so bad on the eyes and hace so many lucrative roles and accolades thrown her way, she could pretend not to notice her heft and face that looks like a giant slapped ass.

Are we sure Gabrielle Carteris auditioned for Kate Winslet's role or Gloria Stuarts?

R65 You need help.

She's okay, but I don't get the hype.

R53 She's probably just looking back (like many of us do) and realizing she was more attractive in her youth than she thought at the time and is annoyed at the people who called her fat and made her feel bad about herself.

[quote]The part was first offered to Goop, then Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore. Other actresses who were considered or auditioned supposedly included:

Interesting that Goop was the first choice.

Hard to believe this cow is still prattling on about how mean people were to her. Just STFU and enjoy your very privileged life you self-absorbed bitch.

Christ, it was over twenty-five years ago! Give it a fucking rest!

Who do you think you are, Mia Farrow?

If it bothered her that much, she could have always lost a few pounds.

[quote]R70 Interesting that Goop was the first choice.

I believe she was revving up for her career highpoint. The year after Titanic was released she had 4 major film out, all in 1998: Great Expectations, Shakespeare in Love, A Perfect Murder, and Hush.

So she was in demand.

Goop didn't pass the tit test, she'd be like another boy alongside Leo

girl i wasnt talkin about you i was talkin about the ship.

R2, agree totally; I have never seen a picture of Winslet where she looked fat or even overweight. Seen a few where she appeared normal weight with the infamous extra 10 pounds from the camera. She usually looks very slim.

R65, you're truly strange. Winslet is physically very beautiful by any conventional standard, and her performances in every single movie I've seen her in show her as a serious talent. Even at the start of her career, in movies like Heavenly Creatures and Iris, she was mind-blowingly good.

“mind-blowingly good” is way overdoing it. She’s a competent, average actress at best.

I read an interview with Winslet after the release of Titanic. She was talking about how much she liked Leo, and she observed that during the scene where she's naked and he's painting her, they had to pause for a lighting change or something. He leaned forward and said to her, "They're going to say you're overweight when this comes out. You're not. You're beautiful. Pay them no attention."

I was really impressed by that: enough to have remembered it all this time. He was already a star much admired for his looks, even before Titanic was released, so it would have carried some weight (pardon pun) coming from him then.

The fact that she didn't expect his observation to be the basis for a pass also told me he was probably gay.

That story sounds fake as fuck.