The actress has spoken about body shaming before and recently recalled being told to settle for “fat girl” roles as a young performer at acting school. Photo / AP
The actress has spoken about body shaming before and recently recalled being told to settle for “fat girl” roles as a young performer at acting school. Photo / AP
Kate Winslet has blasted Titanic fans after comments were made about her weight.
The 47-year-old actress has hit out against cruel trolls who claimed her weight was the reason Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack ultimately passed away.
Referencing the scene in the film where Rose was floating on a door in the ocean while Jack clung onto the side of it effectively freezing to death in the water, fans suggested if Rose was skinnier, Jack would have been able to fit on the door as well and his character wouldn’t have died in the 1997 blockbuster.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, she confronted the comments saying: Apparently, I was too fat. Why were they so mean to me?
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic. Photo / Supplied
Winslet also reflected on how she wishes she’d have addressed the vile comments at the time.
She added: “I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’
“That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
The Oscar-winning actress has spoken about body shaming before, and she recently recalled being told to settle for “fat girl” roles as a young performer at acting school, while her agent would later ask about her “weight”.
She said: “It can be extremely negative. People are subject to scrutiny that is more than a young, vulnerable person can cope with. But in the film industry it is really changing.
“When I was younger my agent would get calls saying, ‘How’s her weight?’ I kid you not. So it’s heartwarming that this has started to change.”
Winslet insisted she hopes times have changed because she has very different priorities now.
She added: “As a middle-aged woman, I care about being that actor who moves their face and has a body that jiggles.”
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 blockbuster. Photo / Supplied
The Avatar: The Way of Water star also opened up about how social media has changed life for anyone in the public eye - insisting the internet puts unnecessary pressure on young actors as they are unable to move on from their mistakes.
She explained: “It was hard enough [for me] having the flipping [defunct UK tabloid] News of the World on my doorstep, but that doesn’t even cut it now.
“That phrase about ‘today’s news being tomorrow’s fish and chip paper’ doesn’t exist. The thing you did when you were drunk or foolish? It may come back to haunt you. Needing to be on one’s guard for young actors is just a different thing. It must be extraordinarily hard.”
