When Kate Winslet removed her top and asked Leonardo DiCaprio’s character to draw her “like one of your French girls” in Titanic, the scene made cinema history. Now, 25 years after that famous topless scene, the Oscar award winning actress has removed her clothing again, and this time, she had to be “really f**king brave” to do it.
In an October cover interview with Vogue, Winslet reflected on filming a topless scene for the upcoming film Lee, in the wake of an injury that prevented her from exercising.
“I had to be really fucking brave about letting my body be its softest version of itself and not hiding from that,” Winslet told the publication.
In the upcoming film, Winslet plays renowned model and photographer Lee Miller, who was once famously photographed topless on a picnic trip—an event Winslet had to recreate for the film.
“I had three massive hematomas on my spine, huge…I could barely stand up,” Winslet explained.
However, the actress didn’t think the scene was about vanity.
“And believe me, people amongst our own team would say, ‘You might just want to sit up a bit.’ And I’d go, ‘Why? [Because of] the bit of flesh you can see? No, that’s the way it’s going to be!’”
It’s not the first time the actress has opened up about letting her body be seen on film. In 2021, Winslet told The Guardian, she experienced body shaming in her 20s.
“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.
“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! 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.
In her most recent interview with Vogue, Winslet reflected on this experience.
“I was consistently told I was the wrong shape,” Winslet said. “I was consistently told I would have to settle for less.”
However, when asked why she didn’t then settle for less, Winslet said, “Cause I wasn’t going to take that shit from anyone.”
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