Kate Winslet Owns Her Career

Kate Winslet became a household name in 1997, when she starred in Titanic. Over the next 20 years, she often gravitated to independent films, turning down roles in Shakespeare in Love and Anna and the King. At just over forty years old, Kate Winslet owns roles in more than forty movies to date.

Winslet’s name occupies several lists predicting best-actress nominations this year, but not for The Mountain Between Us, which lacked critical acclaim. She also starred in a film called Wonder Wheel, set in 1950s Coney Island.

Refusing to be typecast, the only thing predictable about Winslet is that she likes intriguing roles in movies that are not commerce driven. She’s played historic, futuristic, and contemporary characters. She often takes on raw roles and has appeared in more than a few nude scenes, but none of which gratuitous.

Regarding an extensive nude scene in the movie Little Children, In a 2006 interview for The Telegraph, “I was very, very nervous about it, but at the same time it’s such a huge part of the story that I was immersed in the characters,” she says. “I just thought to myself, ‘You know what? I am playing a woman who is a mother and therefore it doesn’t stand to reason that every part of my body would be perfect – which, by the way, it’s not.’ Who is perfect?”

Here’s a partial list of Kate Winslet movies, some of which you might not have heard of.

Titanic – 1997 (PG-13)

This blockbuster dramatization of a historic tragedy comes to mind when most people think of Kate Winslet. For her performance as Rose, she received an Oscar nomination for best actress, and the film itself won 11 Oscars.

Hideous Kinky – 1999 (R)

Set in the 1970s, Winslet plays a young mother who runs off to Morocco with her two young daughters and forms a relationship with a street performer. It is based on a novel by Esther Freud, great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

Holy Smoke – 2000 (R)

Winslet’s character, member of a cult in India, returns to Australia for deprogramming. Harvey Keitel’s character thinks the task will be a breeze, but he finds out it’s not so easy to accomplish.

Faeries – 1999 (G)

Winslet lends her voice to this animated film in which three children, who find themselves in Fairyland, must complete several tasks before they can return to the real world. Jeremy Irons co-stars.

Jude – 1996 (R)

Based on the 1895 Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure, in this movie Winslet plays the cousin of a man who wants to be more than a stonemason. He desires his cousin as well, even though they are both married to others. It is a tragic story to be sure.

Quills – 2000 (R)

Geoffrey Rush stars with Winslet in this tale about the Marquis de Sade, legendary writer of salacious stories. She plays an asylum worker who takes de Sade’s dictation after he is locked away to prevent him from writing.

Heavenly Creatures – 1994 (R)

This was Winslet’s first major motion picture. Based on a true story, she plays one of two troubled teenage girls who commit a terrible crime. It is set in 1950s New Zealand.

Hamlet – 1996 (PG-13)

Cast as Ophelia, Winslet is the object of Hamlet’s famous, “Get thee to a nunnery,” directive. Her role is minor in a cast that includes Julie Christie and Billy Crystal.

Iris – 2001 (R)

Winslet won a best-supporting actress nomination for a role in which she plays the younger version of the title character. Judi Dench plays her counterpart. This film is based on the true story of Iris Murdoch, a provocative writer and philosopher, who eventually succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Enigma – 2001 (R)

Set in early World War II, a group of cryptographers must break the code that commands a fleet of U-boats. Added to that, the main character needs to find his love interest, played by Winslet, after she goes missing.

The Life of David Gale – (2003) (R)

What happens when a capital-punishment opponent ends up on death row himself? Winslet stars as a journalist who interviews the condemned man days before he’s scheduled to die in the electric chair. How far will he go for his cause?

A Kid in King Arthur’s Court – 1995 (PG)

In this animated Disney film, Winslet voices a princess from medieval Camelot where a California boy finds himself after an earthquake. It turns out that Merlin summoned the boy, who is needed to save the kingdom.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – 2004 (R)

Earning a best-actress nomination for this futuristic film, Winslet plays a young woman who undergoes a procedure to forget her former love interest, played by Jim Carey. His character decides to do this as well, but then changes his mind.

Other Kate Winslet movies worth seeing include, The Reader, a 2008 film for which Winslet won the Oscar for best-actress, The Dressmaker, all of the Divergent series, The Holiday, A Little Chaos, Labor Day, Revolutionary Road, Mildred Pierce, Little Children (best actress nomination), Contagion, and Carnage.

 

Ann Silverthorn is a writer who loves to see a good story come to life in film. She blogs at annsilverthorn.com, and can also be found on Twitter @annsilverthorn, and Instagram: ann_silverthorn.