During a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Kate Winslet became emotional while recalling when she stood up to the press for bullying and body-shaming her following the breakout success of Titanic.
The Oscar winner has never shied away from speaking up about the body shaming she endured after the 1997 blockbuster turned her into a household name, and she took a moment during her most recent interview to look back on some of the horrendous comments made about her.
Winslet watched an old clip from the entertainment channel, E!, in which the on-air host said Winslet looked “a little melted and poured into” a dress she wore during Titanic’s awards season run.
The host added that Winslet “needed two sizes larger and she’d be OK.”
Winslet reacted to the footage and did not hold back in her disgust.
“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,” Winslet continued as she fought back tears, seemingly filled with pride for her courage. “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.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2022, Winslet also shared how was told to settle for “fat girl” parts when she was a young performer in acting school as well as noting 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,” she continued. “That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
Watch Winslet’s full 60 Minutes interview here.
