HBO’s The Regime, starring none other than Kate Winslet herself, is adding further chops to her illustrious resume, containing works worth decades of jobs well done. In the series, the actress portrays Chancellor Elena Vernham.
And in true to HBO fashion, this project kept both the viewers and actors on their toes. While the story is fictionalized, it draws parallels from real dictators. However, when it comes to Winslet’s approach, the actress opted to steer clear of method acting altogether, citing past negative experiences, and didn’t deem it necessary for this project’s needs.
Why Kate Winslet Avoided Method Acting for The Regime
Kate Winslet portrays the intricately written character of Chancellor Elena Vernham in the HBO show The Regime. The series follows Vernham ruling over a turbulent modern Europe while dealing with a lot of inner turmoil. And Winslet’s performance? Absolutely spine-chilling, as her portrayal makes it incredibly difficult for audiences not to be absolutely terrified of her character.
When asked about her approach by IndieWire, she revealed why she didn’t choose to go the method acting route, a choice typically taken by many, especially for roles such as these. She revealed,
“I didn’t look to any specific figures for inspiration because I didn’t think that would be a sensible choice,–Honestly, she isn’t like anyone I’d ever come across before anywhere at all.”
Moreover, her not-so-pleasant encounter with method acting, during the production of Ammonite, left her with few choices thus he chose to explore alternative approaches. As she narrated in The Late Show, to Stephen Colbert,
“I had to live a strange isolated life when I was playing her — I had to do everything to be Mary and I got a bit method.–It was so isolated, cold and rattly that when there was a big storm the waves would hit the windows of the house and the power would go down and I would lie there thinking, ‘Kate what are you doing?’ Just go to the hotel with everybody else. I would eat this weird soup, and walk around sketching things… it was ridiculous, actually”
Struggling to find any resemblance with existing figures, the actress decided to paint her own colors onto the character, thereby delivering a performance that stood out. Fans are happy she succeeded.
How Kate Winslet Transformed Herself into Chancellor Elena Vernham
The Titanic actress spoke to Vanity Fair in depth about her experience embodying the character and what it took to step into her shoes.
Although she avoided method acting, that doesn’t mean she didn’t have to emotionally and physically immerse herself in the project to flesh out Elena. She said,
“This is a woman in an imagined mental and physical state of decline, We allowed for those things to be manifestations of something more traumatic that had learned to live inside of her body—but that she had had to learn how to hide. I was playing someone who’s always wearing a mask of some kind.”
The actress also serves as an executive producer on the show and was convinced right after reading the script that this was something she wanted to approach in her own unique way.
“I knew right away that it wasn’t going to make sense for me to play her using my own voice.”
She further explained,
“I had to accept early on that…there was nothing in [this character] that I had ever come across before,–I had never played anything like this.–I’m always doing dialects of one kind or another, like Mare of Easttown or back to Titanic, and there’s always a coach who’s teaching me and making sure I’m f–king doing the damn thing,–To suddenly be doing something that actually was so varied in range, and also really, really in her body—it was quite scary to be doing that by myself.”
In the end, this adventure proved to be nothing short of a thrilling journey for her, as she undoubtedly emerged triumphant, having overcome challenges and obstacles along the way. Especially considering it was one of her first unique experiences, fans hope may this become the first of many.
The Regime is streaming on Max.
