An Evening with Kate Winslet | NYFF55

without further ado going to introduce Kate Winslet just had to project I I could have started out by listing you know all the films and your filmography you know it's been kind of amazing watching the variety of films you've been in but just to start with I just want to welcome you back to the New York Film Festival because this is I think the fourth or fifth film you've had here you've been here with little children and also carnage and Steve Jobs of course and and now Wonder Wheel so and among those we had an opening night film a centerpiece film and a closing night film so we're probably going to have to invent a new event for the next film that you do I'm up for that okay but you know with with Wonder Wheel it's I guess we just just curious you know how you got started with project like that because it just seems in many ways you know tailor-made for many of the challenges you like to meet as an actor you know complex role and I would develop so over over the course of time and there's like a cinematic aspect but also kind of a stage or theatrical aspect and the way he's filming it so I mean when did you first read the script for that or when you know so good evening everyone thank you for coming so it was last summer and and my agent phoned and said okay Woody Allen wants to talk to you right and he's going to send you a script and he wants you for the lead but he wants to talk to you right anything else nope she didn't know anything else so I sort of immediately went into oh hi sorry I've just seen people I know hi I sort of immediately went into this state of you know definite sort of panic but incredible excitement and fear and trepidation and anticipation and all of those things that you would feel if someone told you that Woody Allen was about to phone you up so I had to wait for the phone to ring which it did hello what do you on the end of the phone oh hi this is Kate hello how are you I'm fine how are you and already I'm thinking you are so not being yourself at all on this phone call Kate you are just you're doing an invented version of who you are because you're so terrified already that he's not actually gonna give you the part that apparently he's already given you and so I just was I was not myself it was I felt like I was giving a bad telephone audition anyway he he said these extraordinary things he said well I have a descript that I wrote and I I very much thought of you and you know you're probably gonna hate it but you know one if you don't want to do it you can just go on and have a more fulfilling life and uh but you know why I really I think it could be a tour de force for you and I think you should you know I think I I think you should you know have a read and you know you're probably gonna hate it said it again you know it goes on like this and we hear the whole conversation this really was the whole conversation and I was thrilled discover that actually I was just laughing I just ended up laughing I said okay well I read it well they're gonna get it to you I mean I do i I I don't know how they're gonna get it to you but someone's gonna get it to you and the onion you know you know you you read it and we can change everything you know what I'm thinking no that's definitely made up that is definitely the bit I don't believe so then somebody a proper carrier pigeon person came to my house with the script and I said okay um well would you like a coffee while you sit on the step and wait yes okay yeah that would be nice I my god someone's actually waiting outside the door and so I sat on the stairs at home and and read the script and and sort of couldn't move really and I'm actually quite a fairly slow reader I don't read books or scripts quickly at all and I just sat there and was I mean I was really so stunned by this character and this incredible film that he had written and I promise you I said out loud oh well I can't do that I mean I just thought I work just I just can't it's and my husband said what's it like I said well it's absolutely brilliant but I just I just can't let's just forget it I just I just I can't do it so just please don't even look at me and just please just just don't look at me like that I'm not doing it I cannot do it I can't do it what are you talking about I can't play this part it's too I can't I don't know how to I don't I I just don't know how to and I really thought I didn't know how to play this part so Ginny is well she's she's nothing like me but that's not really the thing because of course when the character isn't anything like you that's the exact reason why you should think oh well maybe I should give it a go because that's what acting is but she felt so far out of my grasp she felt so far away and in incredible complex isn't even a word I think I could use because she is those things but it's it's a lot of confusion with her and this you know she's living living a life that is so full of sort of not shattered dreams but proper mistakes that really made a difference to the course of her life and all of her choices she has no choice you know one day she did and now she doesn't and to play this character who throws it all the way all away at the the possible chance or the hope of something new somewhere else but it's an impossible unreachable ungraspable fantasy and to play a woman like that who also drinks and shouts and has a son who lights fires you know that too and has a different accent to me you know III just I just thought to myself well I just don't know where to begin and then I looked at myself in the mirror and just went off for sake get your act together of course you've got to do it I've cut just shut up shut up shut up of course you've got to do it and so I did but I think we were all really terrified actually you know I think I think the idea of working with Woody Allen it's so thrilling you know I've been I've been aware of him for as long as I wanted to be an actress you know and my parents were so proud the idea that I would work with him and and that was a really big deal for me as well and he they had him in any period before that you know ever been offered a role and Woody Allen this is really the first time or no I had had there but there was a moment actually when I had actually met him twice before for different films one I can't even remember what the film was I don't think I was ever even told but I didn't get the part I remember skipping remember skipping across some Fifth Avenue I was here doing some press but I think probably even have any creatures or something like that and I was going to meet Woody Allen well I mean I was nearly sick the idea of it and I walked in and he just went mm-hmm okay very nice thank you and I thought well I thought I'm never gonna work with him obviously he hates me and and then I did meet him again for a different film which for a minute I was actually going to do and then but I had just had a baby my my son Joe who's now 14 and just my family life just actually it wasn't possible so so I'm very very lucky that I got another go-around and I mean it's such a wonderful part that you can really dig into it's a real showcase and I kind of in a literal way it's a showcase because what was fascinating me is that the home you know where you live with you with your husband and in a film it's it's like a stage you know I mean how it that probably was interesting for you as an actor that you have a character who's kind of aware of herself playing a part in says a lot of points you know I'm just playing a role I'm not really this person it well that's another reason why she was so difficult because I think that every single step of every step she took every breath she took and every moment of her life she just kept thinking this this is not this isn't really me this just isn't me and yet the tragic thing of course is that it absolutely is her and it's what she's made her life and that that's it and she can't blame anyone else for it but that's set actually the the set where we hunt Hampton and Jenny's apartment it was it was extraordinary and it was a little bit like being on a stage remember when Jim and I Jim we when we first walked in we we thought oh no there's too many things in the way and we even tried to get the set directors like chop off a bit of the kitchen counter didn't we Jim and we and and I sort of I was like what are we doing Woody's gonna absolutely kill us they said no no he'll probably be fine about it we thought oh okay well well can we actually chop that Bev the kitchen counter thing because but there should be more of a thoroughfare here and there's too many things in the way duh come in the next day would he deliberately want there to be all these obstruction but of course he did you know and it was perfect like that and it did mean that there's so much walking around of that kitchen counter in the chairs in the way in the table and that you know just it added to the k.asif of them the mess of life and her desperately trying to get out of it but it was it was um it was a great set actually it was yeah I mean and and also of course you have the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro you know a real master working there and he comes up with all these elaborate ways of manoeuvring you and Jim Belushi's through the whole set that's all so I mean that's something that must required a lot of elaborate kind of blocking rehearsal just to get that sort of stuff doner oh my god so there's this thing that is apparently known about Woody Allen which is that he doesn't rehearse and there he really doesn't talk to the actors much both of those things are not true he absolutely rehearses so what we would do is we would go in in the morning and we would get hair and makeup camera-ready all of us all the cast and then woody wood would arrive and then he could see his actors he never saw me I'm sure probably everyone else as well but he never saw me without my full costume and wig on never not once on the whole shoot and I actually wanted it to be that way so it was great so then we would all go onto the set and we would we would absolutely rehearse the living daylights out of the scene so it could be a 14-page scene and the entire thing would be incredibly choreographed you know really thought through and and also there would be problem areas so suddenly he might cut a piece of dialogue and we would all go away while he thought about that then we'd come back and he'd say Ashley actually it wasn't so bad I just trimmed a little here and there but in there were other days when actually he would slash an entire scene in half there was a scene with Justin and myself in these Chinese gardens and and we were rehearsing the scene and we're in the middle of the rehearsal and woody just sort of started shuffling off and we were still acting we're like woody oh you're still talking you're not still talking is this sea isn't it done like no woody there's like a whole other like three and a half pages of your scene that you wrote oh this is too long oh no this is oh no I gotta fix this you're still talking oh no we gotta go to lunch I gotta fix this and then he slashed this scene in half which gave me a full-on heart attack Justin Timberlake no heart attack at all because he has this memory for dialogue that is absolutely infuriating so but woody would do things like that so we would always be hair and makeup ready we would rehearse really with everybody so it became very much a piece of theater and was something that included you know the camera guys we had lots of Steadicam happening so that involved a lot of hiding of wires and pinning down pieces of carpet so people didn't trip and you know the setting of props you know all these kinds of things that you have to really make sure you know it's my whiskey bottle in the same place the cigarettes opposed to cigarettes the ashtray all that's moved weight the knife the thing the chopping the laundry basket you know the so lots and lots of rehearsal and he did you know I would say that for for all of us and certainly this was the case for me it was the most purely sort of actor/director relationship I think I've ever had you know there were no lunches and dinners and there was none of that social there was none of that at all there was none of that all would you like to come for Sunday lunch it was absolutely very much a businesslike thing and I really liked that because often for me I find myself wanting to truly make sure that the director I don't know feels included with the actors in some way because often they're off doing other things and so you know normally it's me who's saying oh let's do a Sunday lunch or let's do a you know why don't we all go for a cocktail on Saturday night and and actually was really nice just not to be that person not to be the party planner and just to just to focus on the job I mean there was there was no other way around it really because there was so much dialogue yeah I mean you have all these kind of set peace monologues that are just great that you can really just tear terror into and a lot of them are really interesting because you go through a whole gamut of emotions within the space of the minute you know I think there's or even in dialogue with with you know Juno temple at one point you go from when you're questioning her about her seeing Justin Timberlake's character and you go from just kind of being suspicious and then you get you know then you get kind of a concern you pretend to be concerned for a second and then you kind of you know get angry again so you're able to phase through all these things it's it's a character isn't it a character who's kind of always has all of the feelings at once that's yet about you know the past and the present that's exactly right I mean she you know Woody had just written in to every scene that Jenny was in the most extraordinary range of emotion it was never ever just one thing you know it's never it's never just the sad scene or the angry sea and all the drunk sea and it was all of those things and about ten more other things as well and I did find that I found it was a real balancing act because of course you know I mean like even the choice of dialects that I did for her you know why absolutely could have been that girl I could have spoken like that and I could have laid it on thick you know when I could have done that thing that we've seen done before and I just didn't want to do it I want you to find another way of making her a whole and proper person that I had never seen before let alone played before and so establishing even the dialect was something that actually woody was really good about this cuz I thought well he's not gonna want me to send him a tape of me you know doing some of Jenny's lines or something but I I sort of said look I'm gonna have to know if I'm doing something or something that you like because if I get there on day one you say oh this you know dialect is awful then I'm gonna have a heart attack so so my dialect coach Susan and I who I've worked with for 20 years we sat down and we we just found something that sounded as though it was from a sort of a broader new yorky area which is what what he had talked about not specifically Coney Island and that she had been somewhat educated at some point in her life she there had been some education of sorts and perhaps a bit of proper theater training so so that meant that we had quite a lot to play with actually and we did record a piece of dialogue into my iPhone and sent it to woody and it was like waiting I don't know what it was like waiting but it was like waiting to know whether father Christmas was actually gonna bring me a present or not and and and luckily he sent an email saying yeah very nice very nice something like you've done a nice job I thought okay I'm in I'm in he likes me yeah because it's obviously territory that he knows pretty well just you know even just geographically that the general is I mean is it in in any home where they live you know the kid lives right next to the cyclone I felt like you know living right next to the Wonder wheels like the equivalent for this movie of that can you imagine you know living next to the Wonder Wheel living above that shooting alley you know the constant constant noise so Ginny you know she's a woman who can just never ever escape can't escape anything at all and just the words you know it's just so much to say you know we would all run lines which share these rides home in the evening and we would all you know be grateful when there was traffic because it meant we have more time running lines for the next day in the next day and the next week you know we were just and it was it was honestly it was a real immersive you know diligent committed it was it was it was very different it was very different to any other film there was you know I haven't done many films that have been quite as immersive like that maybe the reader was like that I think perhaps and little children was a bit like that just because it was difficult a difficult story oh no Revolution Road was a bit like that too but but that proper just completely round-the-clock and I would sleep in these sort of hour-long bursts and I would wake up and go is it now is it now is it now no it's not now partly excitement about going to work and shooting these great scenes but also partly fear also you know just terror that I had missed the alarm you know and I would and I would my hands would hurt in the night and I think why my hands hurting and then I would fall asleep then I'd wake up again is it now is it now and I'd realize I was clenching my fists and I was sleeping with his clenched fists I've never done that before it was very weird I don't do it now but I did do it then I mean it's it's it's a character it's it's almost hard to hard to leave behind and she's just this constant Fernet ik kind of ball of energy I also just want to go back a bit to the the cinematography because that's another way that all your emotions are kind of heightened you know these amazing scenes where you have they put these gel lights on you so you'll go from like red to blue in a scene and and or they'll just kind of turn off all the colors you know when you're kind of getting in this very contemplative state in the film I mean how do you respond to that when you know as an actor say as it is it distracting to have to work with or how do you integrate that with you expression well I try I mean one thing that I've always tried to do is to not pay too much attention actually and in a good reason so you try not to notice too much the specifics of what the cinematographer is actually doing with the lights because because it can often make you you know in reality it can it can make you a bit self-conscious when you think oh well why was he lighting me from down there right there what's you know I just would rather not think about it and just totally trust and of course it's Vittorio Storaro you know but I was definitely aware of walking onto the set when he had done his lighting for the day because it would all be established then we'd go and every day I would walk in to go oh my god it's beautiful in here and I would I would really see this just painting and I remember that the funniest thing once to Jim I don't know if you remember him saying this Jim but so Jim was trying to establish what the framing was for a certain shot and it was always very difficult to know what the framing was because everything was a lot most of our scenes were done all in one long continuous take but sometimes they would move in slightly closer and you'd have to you know get out the way of the camera so the next actor could literally step into the frame and it was very confusing but Jim said to Vittorio Vittorio I'm worried were you framing this and Vittorio said it's from into waste just to waste so it's only you're from the waist up and then he turned around he said you are just like Marilyn you're only act you only want to act with the part of the body that the camera can see as I know and even I said no no that's not why he's asking I said that's what mmediately felt very defensive but then I but then I sort of sat back and thought wow that's a story to tell her just like Marilyn it's like oh my god who are we working with and every day every day I would I would I would look at him and think wow you you really are Vittorio Storaro and and how are we all here I mean it was it was really something it was really really truly something yeah it's it's I mean in the whole movie has such a great progression to as well between the lighting and between your own development of the character i mean i don't i don't i guess i don't know people have seen it yet in this room no not yet okay well there's a nice development to the character but but there's so many scenes where I'm kind of wondering what's going going through your head way as you know even just that monologue and the boardwalk with with with Justin Timberlake in the beginning you know where you're kind of you're like you have I have two things I need to tell you about it you know and I mean how do you get into the to the mind I don't think that's too much of a spoiler to say that they talk on the boardwalk because the movie said in Coney Island said but what's going through your through your mind and trying and getting that scene across well when I tell you the direction that would he gave which luckily made me laugh thank God thank God and also thank God I'm just so old now that I don't seem to get you know offended particularly anymore when I certainly did when I was younger oh my god when we were shooting that scene this is really true when we were shooting that scene would he got up out of his chair and he does this thing where he just sort of shuffles and he was like oh stop gonna die I said what's the matter he said it's just to actressy but I honestly and thank God Justin was there cuz he's a little bit the same and doesn't get offended so luckily I cracked up laughing I said did you actually just say that he was like boy was I said well okay um is that a piece of direction he said well no I know ah would you like me to show you how I would do it at which point Kate Winslet says yes definitely and then woody would do it and and I would just sort of just want him to do it I could watch wow he's really just acting out his own scenes right in front of my very eyes and then and then I would have to somehow dee woody eyes his version and make it my own but I would get a hell of a kick out of that would you like me to show you how I would do it that would come up quite a lot yeah now I just imagine like every senior like there was there were also times when I really would that there's a scene there's a scene in the movie where my character Ginny gives Justin's character Mickey a pocket watch and it's a very very difficult very difficult scene I think it's probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to grapple with yeah actually that's great it's a difficult name and and I went to woody at the beginning of that day and I said okay I just really need you to help me today well okay and I'd say what is anything the matter I'd say no it's just the scene woody is there's a very difficult scene and I you know I just don't want to I just really don't want to it up I just want to get it right and he said okay okay well I'll be there for you and then he would really would be you know he really he really really would be and the same with the very final scene because I was a little bit nervous about treading on ground that had been trodden on before with certain female characters in other movies because it's a sort of a crescendos type of the scene and I just wanted it to be I wanted to make it my own quite honestly I just wanted to make it my own my own thing and I said the same thing Tim then I went up to him I said I want you to really you gotta get me through this one okay and then he did it was really quite I was surprised by that actually because I had been told that he was quite awkward with actors which he is awkward in a good way but when when product you know he sort of he yeah yeah and I read somewhere in an interview that one thing that attracts you better role is that you or that you have to expose something about yourself and you know in it I'm curious but I mean it seems weird how did you expose yourself but but in this role what what you know what what did you feel we were able to make vulnerable or there was a new challenge for you in this role I think the I think that there were lots of things about her that were that were challenging but I think because she's she she says how she feels and tries desperately to articulate what she's feeling so much of the time that actually when you have a character like that it can get really big and it can get a bit indulgent and and and because that's the nature of her world you know and and she's very much articulating literally everything around her you know from you know I feel like my clothes you know everything I've gotta wash my uniform I gotta where's rich he was you know what do you mean we haven't got any money what do you mean clean the fish I've got a headache I mean it was it's a constant sort of slew of of her just describing what she's going through and that can get neurotic and it can just go the wrong side of the line so I was constantly constantly just checking myself to make sure I was keeping it you know my side of the line and not letting her get honestly out of control because also towards the story she does get a little out of control and you have to earn that an actor you know you can't have those great scenes and not the right to play them and so the whole film really up to those final scenes was for me very much about earning it and not also trying not to sort of give too much away too soon about all of those things but I would honestly I would have days when I returned to Susan my dialect coach who is in this room and I just saw her briefly over there but I would turn to Susan and I say look just tell me the truth is this like am I giving a performance that is something like a bad school production because I'm sure I'm just I just feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I would have days when I felt like I was just free-falling and I definitely have felt like that a lot before but I really felt like that I think every day on this and that came from a place of just desperately wanting to really get it right and the terrible fear that that I might not you never know though you just never know yeah I also just wanted to talk about some other films and in your career and and one film that comes to muk came to mind a little bit and preparing was Mildred Pierce just because you know you it's you touched on some of the same themes just in terms of a woman at a crossroads or a number of crossroads and and kind of having to fight for her independence in a very visceral way and I don't know I wonder if when you when you're preparing a new role how do you does a pastoral like that ever come to your mind or do you kind of put things in a box when you're done and then move on or do or can you draw on past characters like that no I never never do that I never draw on past characters really at all I mean it's sort of a kind of a rule that I make with myself and I think until I had children my oldest is now 17 as of yesterday but until I had children I could I could sort of carry on being the character even after the filming had stopped and even after we'd wrapped and I would sort of almost indulge in the experience I had just and I would talk it through with friends and I would let it go now there's no time it's like okay okay school run packed lunches off we go okay just do the lines in the car and an actually when getting ready for Wonder Wheel anyone who could read became a script reading buddy so my son Joe I remember being on paddle a paddle board with him and he would say right mom scene 52 Mickey and Jenny under the boardwalk go and he had memory he'd uh he'd done it with me so many times he had memorized it as well so it became a sort of a total family experience actually this film in particular but you know certainly one thing that I that I do find very useful on occasion is often playing a character who is from a particular period in time certainly with the American roles that I've played like with Revolutionary Road for example you know this was set the same time period obviously completely different characters from totally different worlds but actually just the fact that I had expired that period in time in a character before I actually did find quite useful and it was it was just bless actually on this just doing lots of Pitt was lots of picture reference really and music because I knew that that was a big important thing for Woody and he references the music choices quite a lot through the script which not very many directors do but of course because he's a musician and because rhythm is so he's unbelievable with rhythm so when a scene is too long that's why he's just like no we gotta stop this is not he can feel it but I did so there was a lot I listen to alot of music getting getting ready for this actually yeah I mean it they have this Coney Island blues song that runs through the whole film and then there's one great moment late in the film where you really vividly hear one line of lyrics don't pity me you know and it said this one is really poignant moment yeah but it does you know it's acting is such a wonderful wonderful job and I love it I love it and I love making films and it still is the most exciting thing in the world to have that alarm clock go off it you know for 2:45 a.m. knowing that I'm going to work I'm gonna feel like I've got a secret and I really still truly feel that way and actually for me the that's the best bit is the filming and that the hard bit is all the getting ready because so much of that involves sort of actually cooking quite a lot if I find myself you know just thinking oh god I can't I just I'd still don't quite know how to play this person yet and those scenes I thought I was going to think about today well just make some more soup so then I'll just endless freezing of soup goes on secrets of Oscar yes yeah procrastinating you know things that I sometimes do and actually I really did that on the reader because I was so lots of seat Mildred chopping up chicken freezer full of chicken for practice but oh my god but but the reader i well i after reading the book over and over again which seemed to me to be the one thing that I could do to make myself feel as though it was gonna be okay playing that part and then as soon as I had to really accept that I couldn't play her if I didn't truly understand the role of an SS guard that's when you enter the world of seeing the things that you never want to ever see again and playing a character who I really just didn't like you know that that was and similarly with Ginny I oh my god I wanted to kill her you know and and and Diane Dreyer who is our script supervisor on my wrap day she was the first I saw her she threw her clipboard to one side it was my final shot and the first ad said okay everyone that's a wrap on Kate she threw her clip well she came she grabbed me and she went let her go for God's sake just let her go and I burst into tears which was come a complete surprise but she sort of had kind of occupied this space in me that was just laughs but you know but I do still love it I do I do still really I really love it what's what's what's the character you're most fond of Clementine I think I have to say I think Clementine Natal sunshine and actually she's one I'd love to play again because it was just so much fun and the possibilities but and the hair colors were just endless I mean when you like to see clementines a 42 year old woman I'd love to know what happened to her you know I love the idea that she doesn't let herself get really fat and you know just just just just just totally you know let go of her hang-ups about her body and just indulged in everything that made her feel happy you know more hair colors and more crazy clothes I just think that could have been that could have been fun yeah eternal sunshine - and I mean I was also watching wondering what other films you've done that maybe you feel are sort of overlooked I mean I always felt like romance and cigarettes is just a lot of fun and was sort of maybe you know could have gotten more attention I taped my boobs into a bra on that shoot that's how mad that shoot was like I had just had my son Joe he was only 12 weeks old and I said to John Turturro John please please please don't hold me to this please don't make me do this film because I just had a baby and he was like so it's mary-louise I was like okay it was like you can pump together which we actually did but I had a dance scene I had a dance scene with Jimmy Gandolfini oh I had a dancing with Jimmy and and I had hadn't fed my baby for about six hours and I do remember looking in the mirror and just thinking should I pump should I pump after the Z and because I was playing this woman who was very kind of blousy and brazen and and curvaceous and vivacious and all of those things I just thought sorted I'll just pump after the scene and so but then I had to take myself physically into my bra because that would have not been pretty but that yeah so outtakes inside inside the Actor's den really we're really getting to the nitty-gritty here of all don't start me because I am terrible I'm I would tell you things that people would just roll their eyes and scream of me why did you tell them that story now I got to figure out what this story's it and I mean romance and cigarettes and then I mean there's just a whole string of films oh so so actually yes sorry I didn't answer your very important intelligent question which was have any of my films been overlooked I don't know that's a weird one that is a weird one to answer cuz I only ever see the things that I'm in once and then I don't ever see them again and so it's really weird cuz I don't some of them actually I mean like I think of hideous kinky I actually can't really remember the beginning the middle in the end but I will tell this story so not last Christmas but the Christmas before was it nerdy like the Christmas before we were in New Zealand it was wasn't it and we saw Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and Peter said when did you last see heavenly creatures and I said oh my god I mean truly years ago and and my daughter who was 15 at the time said oh can we see him come he said I said no you're too young to run mom you were 17 when you made the film I was like oh my god that moments happening right now when my own daughter is almost eight so I suddenly realized my god we can sit down we could sit down with them and watch heavenly creatures and so we did so Peter and I and my husband Ned and miR and Joe we all certainly watched heavenly creatures and this the thing that really blew my mind was that my daughter really did look does look like me when I was that age which I hadn't noticed at all but Peter kept turning to me and saying no this is a bloody good film this is a really bloody good film we made a bloody hill you know when you think about some of the that's out there Chris this is a really good film that's like something calm down Pete calm down and he suddenly had a moment of allowing himself I think up beyond Lord of the Rings in The Hobbit and all that to just be very very proud of a film that he made this tiny film that we made 25 years ago and that was of course the first thing I ever did and so I think the PETA would say that heavenly creatures was overlooked but I'm not sure I can say that about anything I've done no I actually watched watch it again and for some reason YouTube has the murder scene all over it yeah see that's what see that the bathroom cathartic to watch that same person watch the murder scene when I hear when I hear that Madame Madame Butterfly track they're the plays over that sequence at the end I just I have to stop whatever I'm doing because it takes me right back to filming that scene which I remember like yesterday but that you see you know people often say so is it luck or is it hard work you know come on it's a hard work it's a hard work and I and I I always say well of course it is it is very hard but there was this one huge stroke of luck for me and that was Heavenly Creatures because I've never auditioned for a film and it was that film and it was that story and it was that script and it was that director and it was that experience and it did well and you know you hear stories I mean so many actors my god so many actors I know you know they spend eight nine movies doing things that they just get tiny roles in and they played the pizza boy or the you know the girl next door with the annoying dog you know and and and those thing and they go straight to video or they'll do commercials forever and then suddenly at the age of 29 you know they'll get their break and that happened to me at 17 and that was luck that was luck we are all very lucky that you had that stir look I mean going back to that time period it kind of makes me wonder I mean at that time did you have any actors or stars you kind of look to or look looked up to as a model in some way because I feel like now as a star you just have a the kind of presence that makes you want to see the movie no matter what you know who else is in it or what the you know the direction is about it I mean my God thank God that is a relief because you know even when I walked in here I said is it full do they do this did they sell all the tickets that feeling doesn't go away it really doesn't go away thank God you know sorry you were about to end but I mean like if that stage at that stage you know did you have a particular actor or started yes I did Jodie Foster yes so I absolutely did I just thought because because she'd been Tallulah you know because and I mean because she had been acting as a child in front of my eyes as a child I thought oh my god that so it does happen that thing but you really can be a young young actor in films but I never thought that it would really happen I never ever thought that it was definitely just a sort of a fantasy and then I met Jody when I was 19 at the Golden Globes and I went up to her and I told her that she that I had looked up to her for so many years and she was really really not nice and and sweet and then I was and then I worked with her years later and I'd say to her every day I'd say don't disappoint me now you're my girl don't let me down shut up and I mean heavenly creatures are such an interesting movie to start with as a future debut just because it I mean that's another movie where you're doing so much that you know Peter Jackson I was has this whole range of genres within one movie that he can do and one thing I found interesting bout your career is that you you will embrace the bigger movies obviously the biggest what is one of them but but also an adventure kind of films and like for example you're gonna be doing avatar isn't that exciting I mean how is it different doing those sort of movies do you have to think of it in a different way because those movies are very there bodily in a different way you know it's in Wonder Wheel one thing I was thinking about is the way you use your breathing in the movie and you punctuate things with that and I'm just curious in an action film if you even have time for that or an adventure film even if much time you have for that sort of thing no there is still the time that absolutely I mean there has to be otherwise you just sort of don't do it properly well certainly I wouldn't do it properly but but you know bigger films are they are different you know sometimes they're not it's it's I love doing small films I love it because you can't really get to know everyone you know you get to know the names of people's wives and husbands and children and how they're doing oh wow the school place today oh my god well they're gonna like are we gonna finish in time you're gonna be able to you know those are the relationships that mean the most to me and those are the relationships that you can really find establish and keep by and large on the smaller films and on bigger films there's just so many people so we always find it actually a bit upsetting if I don't know who everyone's name is just because there's so many of them but they're sort of the process of what acting actually is it is very much the same although you know often I'd say maybe on big films there are you know you might end up just doing lots more takes because there are more people in the scene or there's that there's just more stuff to coordinate in terms of avatar though my understanding from what Jim Cameron has told me is that so performance capture you really don't do it over and over again you rehearse and then you you decide the version of the scene that best suits the character in the moment and then you shoot that and you shoot it once or twice until you feel you've really got it great and then he extracts all the shots that he needs from one shot I mean I still do I still didn't really understand how it all works I'm very excited to I'm very very excited to to learn something new I mean it really is learning a whole new other skill I can you tell us anything about the character at all or what is it animal vegetable not allowed but I do play I can tell you that I I do play I'm just noting what I am allowed to say I do play no I'm not really how to say anything but it's a it's a pivotal role and actually in reality I only have them about a month on the whole the whole of all of it I only really have just about a month there's there's no way my life would pull off due to our tongues no that wouldn't be possible but yeah so so I'm really very very excited about it yeah and then just kind of one other general career question I was wondering whether you consider any sort of television or episodic sort of thing like yes yes my god the Scandinavians are getting it right okay and the Brits but I I mean I I have to say that that that I do think that that in the last five to ten years television has just completely transformed it's everywhere everyone and anyone is doing it you know there's none of that that stuff of you know well there's a film actor and doesn't it looked weird that they're suddenly doing television you know all of that's gone that's all gone away and and yes III and I love I love television I really do great writers and it still feels the same as making a film there's really no difference at all it's still the same length of shooting days same length of actual shoot and that's idea as well that you can tell more story because you've got more time and we had that on Mildred because it was five full hours so we didn't cut anything out of that book it was all in there and that's really thrilling when you don't have to you know trim the important edges off and so I would love to do more television yeah I really really would and you actually started out doing smaller parts and television is that right or I did yes yes I did so I did a sitcom when I was about 15 with Ray Winstone and he played my dad and yeah when I was 15 we did two series when I was 15 when I was 16 and I did a kids TV drama as well when I was 15 yeah yeah I was trying to hunt down hunt those down when I couldn't quit couldn't quite find them yeah my son was actually asking me about it the other day he said so what did she look like when you were 15 is it oh my god and he was asking about the jobs that I had done then he said God ma'am you you were working when you were basically nearly my age you were really working I said yeah I was he said but what did your parents think oh my god these questions and I said well they were upset I said you just must have been so grown up and that's the thing I actually was quite grown up for my age at that young age for some reason I don't really know why maybe my parents were brilliant and they they gave us a lot of sort of freedom and Trust and independence and things like that and that definitely helped in terms of me feeling self-sufficient which I've always really felt and and enjoy that you know I find that a very sort of empowering feeling and and I and I do carry that feeling actually into into the job into into the work so so I really don't like having lots of people around so often you know um you know you might see actors you have an assistant on set all the time which is very commonplace extremely normal and sometimes for some people is absolutely necessary I hate it I could not bear to have somebody following me around like that I just for me that's my time that's my my private little crazy world that we exist in for that for that short time and and I I really you know I cherish it I really really cherish it I mean I know for some that for some actors having started acting that that early you know often you feel like you've missed out on childhood but it feels like you've just kind of channeled that kind of energy all throughout the youthful energy and the roles that you do even to this day yeah I do I mean I still you know I turned 42 a couple of weeks ago and I'm so shocked like oh my god really that's I'm really 42 how does that happened I mean I know everyone feels like that but but no I do um I do feel in some ways that I a little bit me missed out a tiny bit partly I think because you know I think that sort of period of experimenting just in terms of life really you know thinking about maybe other things that you want to do you know having a boyfriend and maybe not having that boyfriend anymore and maybe going travelling for a year and then maybe having a different boyfriend and I just didn't do that stuff I didn't because I was working and don't get me wrong I had an absolutely amazing time and had a lovely boyfriend actually sort of four years straight but it was all very grown-up you know I was always I was I had to be self-sufficient and mature from quite a young age I think because of the good fortune that was coming my way into in terms of work so that and I do say to you know to my kids now I'll say you know it's really really important you know you can get your head down and you can work as much as you like but it's very we will make sure that you have great adventures because I do III do recognize that I I miss that little bit well I think we're coming to the end of our time here so I just want to thank you again for for coming and you know we'll see you all at the Wonder Wheel tomorrow but thank you so much thank you very much thank you thank you for coming

Channel: Film at Lincoln Center

Views: 45,922

Rating: 4.9387441 out of 5

Keywords: Film Society of Lincoln Center, Kate Winslet, Titanic, Wonder Wheel, Avatar 2, Avatar 3, James Cameron, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Heavenly Creatures, Woody Allen, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, awards, Oscars, Best Actress, New York Film Festival, NYFF, NYFF55

Id: jpz0OtU7qBw

Length: 50min 10sec (3010 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2017