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academy profile
all about kate
From award-winning roles to airbrushed cover shots, it’s a whirlwind life for actress Kate Winslet. Garth Pearce reports.
Sir Alan Parker was in Texas nearly halfway through shooting his latest film, The Life Of David Gale, when his co- producer (and wife) Lisa Moran, got a call from one of Kate Winslet’s Los Angeles agents.
Parker recalled: “The obnox- ious person said she was new in the office and that there was a problem with Kate’s (previously agreed) arrival dates.
“Lisa, needless to say, was dis- pleased only to be answered with a screech of laughter. It was Kate herself on the phone, trying out her new American accent, convincingly impersonating an American agent.”
Winslet’s new film has been chosen with even greater care than usual. In The Life of David Gale, with Winslet playing, accent perfect, an American journalist, she’s given exclusive access to Gale (Kevin Spacey), an opponent of the death penal- ty who is on death row for the rape and murder of fellow cam- paigner Constance Harraway (Laura Linney).
But as she gets to know Gale, a devoted father and popular professor, she becomes con- vinced of his innocence. She attempts to piece together the mysterious events surrounding Harraway’s death, before the
sentence is carried out on Gale. The twists and turns of this thriller, which is one of Parker’s best, sur- prised even Winslet.
“Before I took the role, I had to read the final page of the script to discover what was going on,” she insists. “I never guessed. And it was great that Alan want- ed me for a straight lead role. No clothes off, this time.”
She delivers another perform- ance of sheer class, particularly coming after her role in Iris, in which she played the young bohemian writer, Iris Murdoch, for which she won a Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.
But she confronts the fact that her work has run alongside some- thing of a personal roller-coaster. “There has been emotional tur- moil in my life,” she agrees. “There is no getting away from that. I had to deal with it as best I could.
Winslet was one of our own. She revelled in a womanly figure, ate bangers and mash at her wedding reception, gave birth to daughter, Mia, now two, and spurned Hollywood.
Then came a shock announcement that her three- year marriage was over. Even worse, it seemed that her sensitive husband, Jim Threapleton, was being swapped for high-flying director, Sam Mendes.
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Photo right: Kate Winslet in The Life Of David Gale
PHOTO: SYLVAINE POITAU