Discussion turned to cinematography and led to famed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro who worked on the film. “He is an absolute master at what he does,” Winslet said. “I try not to pay too much attention to the specifics of what the cinematographer is doing with the lights, believe it or not, it can make you a little self conscious, and this one is legendary!” She said that every day she walked on set she was astonished by how beautiful it was. “At one point Jim [Belushi] was trying to establish what the framing was going to be and Jim said, ‘Hey Vittorio, what’s the framing going to be for this’ and he replied ‘From the waist up.’ Jim says okay. Storaro turns with a laugh and says, ‘You’re just like Marlon [Brando]! You only want to act on the part of the body the camera can see!’ ” The audience laughed uproariously and Winslet continued, “I jumped up to defend him saying its not like that at all, but then I just took a step back and said, ‘Wow, now that is a story to tell.’ I just watched him and I mean, I just thought to myself, ‘You really are Vittorio Storaro!’ It was just remarkable, we wondered how did we get here. It was really, truly something.”
Winslet then went on to recall an anecdote from when she was filming a scene with Timberlake on the boardwalks of Coney Island, New York. “At one point we are doing this scene, Allen shuffles in his chair tells us to stop and lets out a big sigh. I say, ‘What’s wrong?’ He says, ‘It’s just so actress-y.’ ” Winslet laughed. “Thank God Justin was there. He’s the same way, and doesn’t get offended and I said, ‘Is this a piece of direction?’ Allen says, ‘No, no but would you like to see how I would do it?’ Of course I say, ‘yes, definitely.'” Winslet goes on to admit that she just wanted to watch him do it, “I just couldn’t believe he was literally acting out his own scenes right before my very eyes!” she said with a laugh, “I really got a kick out of that.”
As Rapold adeptly pointed out, Kate Winslet’s character in “Mildred Pierce” bears some similarity to her character in this film, but Winslet sternly said she never draws on past characters for inspiration. However, she does like having familiarity with a certain time period. “What’s useful for me is that if I’ve previously played a character and occupied that period in time,” she said. Additionally, while preparing for the film, Winslet said she had her son run lines with her, “or anyone that could read,” and cooked a lot. “The fun part is actually making the film, the hard part is preparing, so I just make lots of food during that time,” she said as she laughed, “for this one it was lots of soup, ‘Mildred Pierce’ was chicken!” She also remembered “The Reader” as being really tough to prepare for especially because she was “playing a character I really didn’t like.”
When asked what character she loved the most, Winslet responded without hesitation, “Clementine from ‘Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind]‘ for sure.” She said she would love to play her again, “I love the idea that she just let herself get really fat and let go of her hang ups over her body and just indulged in everything that made her feel happy. More hair colors more crazy clothes!” Rapold then asked about what films she might’ve felt have been overlooked and mentioned “Romance & Cigarettes” to which Winslet replied, “That shoot was mad.” Both Winslet and Mary-Louise Parker both recently had children before filming so they bonded, “we pumped together,” she said with a laugh. “I had a dance scene with Jimmy [James] Gandolfini,” she said with her hand over her heart, “and at that point I hadn’t fed my baby for about 6 hours. I vividly remember looking in the mirror thinking, ‘should I pump before or after the scene [laughter]. The character I was playing was curvaceous and brazen so I figured I would just pump after the scene. So I taped myself into the bra because that wouldn’t have been pretty and did the scene.”
“I only watch the films I am in once,” she said, “but this reminds me of a story.” About two years ago during the holiday season Winslet was with her husband, children and Peter Jackson. “My daughter asked me about ‘Heavenly Creatures’ a film I made when I was about her age, so we all sat and watched it together,” she said. “Pete kept turning to me saying ‘This is a bloody good film, no really, we made a really good film when you think about the shit that’s out there now [laughter]. But I liked that [Jackson] allowed himself a moment to think past ‘The Hobbit‘ and ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ and all that to be very proud of a film we did ages ago, a tiny film we did nearly 25 years ago.”
When asked what actors she looked up to, Winslet immediately answered, “Jodie Foster, because she’d been Tallulah [in ‘Bugsy Malone‘] and acting as a child in front of my eyes.” She continued, “I realized you can be a young actor in films but I never ever thought it would happen for me, that was a fantasy.” Winslet recalled meeting her at the Golden Globes when she was 19, “I told her what she meant to me and she was nice and sweet and I worked with her years later [on 2011’s ‘Carnage‘].
Next up for Kate Winslet is James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequels. “I can’t tell you absolutely nothing about the role, but it is a pivotal character,” she said cautiously. “I love to do small films, you get to know everyone and those are the relationships that mean the most to me, but this is a great opportunity and I’m very excited,” One thing Winslet said she could share was how her scenes would be filmed. “It’s performance capture,” she said, “you rehearse and you decide which version of the scene best suits the character in the moment and shoot that. I’m thrilled to learn something new.”
Finally when asked about considering television, she said, “I do think in the last 5-10 years television has transformed quite a bit. Everyone is doing it, there is no stigma to working in television and its the same as shooting a film.” The benefits of television, Winslet said, include being able to tell more story because, “you have more time.” She said she “would be glad to do more television” in the future, so we might expect to see her on the small screen as well as the big screen very soon. “I started out in a television sitcom when I was 15,” she said, “my son was astonished.” As she reflected on her early career as a teen, she lamented, “I do feel like I missed out a little bit because I was so young, so I told my kids you can work as hard as you want but we want to make sure you also have some great adventures, too.”
“Wonder Wheel” opens in limited release on December 1st.
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