Kate Winslet Reflected on "Straight-Up Cruel" Media Criticism of Her Weight

• Kate Winslet discussed the "critical and horrible" media coverage (opens in new tab) of her weight in the '90s.
• "It was almost laughable how shocking, how critical, how straight-up cruel tabloid journalists were to me," she told the Guardian.
• "They would comment on my size, they’d estimate what I weighed, they’d print the supposed diet I was on. It was critical and horrible and so upsetting to read," she added.

Kate Winslet reflected on the "straight-up cruel" media coverage of her weight after Titanic launched her into superstardom in the '90s, in a recent interview with the Guardian (opens in new tab). "In my 20s, people would talk about my weight a lot. And I would be called to comment on my physical self. Well, then I got this label of being ballsy and outspoken. No, I was just defending myself," Winslet said.

Winslet spoke about re-reading tabloid articles about herself, written when she was just 19, and revisiting their brutal criticism of her weight. "It was almost laughable how shocking, how critical, how straight-up cruel tabloid journalists were to me. I was still figuring out who the hell I bloody well was!" she said.

"They would comment on my size, they’d estimate what I weighed, they’d print the supposed diet I was on. It was critical and horrible and so upsetting to read," she continued. "But it also made me feel so…so moved. By how different it is now."

Winslet also commented on the media depiction of the queer relationship at the center of her latest movie, Ammonite, in which she stars alongside Saoirse Ronan. "I have been asked so, so many times about the intimate scenes in Ammonite, way more than I have ever been asked about any heterosexual love scene before. When I have, it’s been comparisons—how was Leo compared with Jude? So embarrassing, so naff. But what happens with the discussion of LGBTQ love scenes is that people actually use different words to describe them."

"'Searingly erotic,'" she continued, "'Titillating,' things that describe the impact that the scene might have on an audience, rather than the content of the scene itself. It really pisses me off, actually."

"What I love about how Francis [Lee, who wrote and directed Ammonite] chose to tell the story of Mary Anning [Winslet's role], and her connection with Charlotte [Murchison, played by Ronan], is that he did it without hesitation," Winslet said. "The relationship is a part of the story. It’s nothing to do with fear, or secrecy. It’s about two people who fall in love."