Kate Winslet is an esteemed and versatile actress whose talent and captivating performances have enthralled audiences for decades. With her remarkable acting prowess and undeniable screen presence, Winslet has solidified her position as one of the most respected and accomplished actresses in the industry.
Winslet’s unwavering dedication to her craft has garnered her numerous accolades, including an Academy Award for her unforgettable role in The Reader, where she brilliantly portrayed the complex character of Hanna Schmitz. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind star revealed while talking about her Oscar-winning role that she felt enormous pressure to play the character in The Reader.
Kate Winslet Could Not Relate To Her Character In The Reader
Winslet’s best films to date are The Reader and Revolutionary Road, and both of the films were released in the same year, 2008. But the characters of both films were very different, making it difficult for Kate Winslet to justify each of them. Talking about her character which bagged the superstar her Oscar, the Titanic star marked that there was nothing for her to relate with her character, Hannah. The Revolutionary Road star felt her position at that time was frightening as she felt pressure to justify a character from the content-rich novel.
“[With] Hannah I was very much playing a character, and I remember staring down the barrel of the gun and thinking, ‘Shit. I really have nothing I can relate to here. There’s nothing of my own experience I can put into this character, at all. So let’s just start right there and hope for the goddamn best.’ It’s such a terrifying position to be in, especially when it’s such an extraordinary book; the material’s so rich. It’s a much-loved piece of German literature and so important to Germans–I wanted to get it right. I was the person asked to play Hannah Schmitz.”
The Finding Neverland star added that the hardest part in playing the character of Hanna Schmitz was to control her instincts as to who she actually is. This was important, to present the actual character to the audience.
“It was an enormous pressure [on me]. ‘Jesus Christ! Don’t f*ck it up, girl.’ The thing about playing Hannah that, quite honestly, was the hardest — aside from all the obvious things: the dialect and so on, and the aging, and the illiteracy and the moral illiteracy–the hardest thing was to hold on to my instincts as to who you are.”
Kate Winslet On Justifying The Roles Rather Than Being Freaked Out Of Them
Kate Winslet stated that if she would freak out from her characters, she would have never been successful in justifying them. Talking about her two acclaimed characters in The Reader and Revolutionary Road, Winslet marked that working in these two films and roles has been the most creatively rewarding for her, as these experiences have inculcated a lot in her as an actor.
“If I’m freaked out by it and think I could never do that, that makes me think I should be doing it. I felt that way for both of these films. Playing these two incredibly strong characters has been the most creatively rewarding year of my life, taught me more, and stretched me more than ever before.”
It can surely be said that Winslet has been successful in bringing her novel characters to life with her remarkable acting. Her performance in The Reader has impressed both critics and viewers with her depth and authenticity
The Reader is currently available on Netflix to stream.
Source: HuffPost; Star Tribune
