Kate Winslet: I Still Feel Like the 'Fat Kid'

She opens up about her struggles with weight, self-esteem and the Oscar buzz about her two new films

Published on November 3, 2008 03:50 PM

Kate Winslet struggled with her weight as a teenager – and the successful star and fashion icon says she still sometimes has doubts about her body.

“I never had a desire to be famous,” Winslet, 33, says in a new Vanity Fair interview. “I was fat. I didn’t know any fat famous actresses. I just did not see myself in that world at all, and I’m being very sincere. You know, once a fat kid, always a fat kid.”

Luckily, Winslet did not let her insecurities get the best of her. In fact, she set a record as the youngest actress to earn five Oscar nominations. But despite her professional successes, Winslet tells the magazine she still can be self-critical.

“You always think that you just look a little bit wrong or a little bit different from everyone else,” the actress says. “And I still sort of have that. I often look at women who wear great jeans and high heels and nice little T-shirts wandering around the city and I think, ‘I should make more of an effort. I should look like that.’

“But then I think, ‘They can’t be happy in those heels,'” she says.

So, what makes Winslet happy?

“I need to be looked after,” she says. “I need someone to say to me, ‘Shall I run you a bath?’ or ‘Let’s go to the pub, just us.’ I mean, the things that make me happiest in the whole world are going on the occasional picnic, either with my children or with my partner.

The actress and her director husband Sam Mendes wed in 2003, and have a son, Joe, 5, together. Winslet has a daughter, Mia, 8, from a previous relationship.

Reuniting With Leo

Her latest project, Revolutionary Road, due in theaters in late December, allowed Winslet to collaborate with her husband for the first time. Mendes directed his wife in the period film, which also reunited her with Titanic costar Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Leo and I, you know, are sort of kindred spirits,” Winslet says. “We’re cut from the same cloth.”

DiCaprio also has high praise for Winslet, saying, “Kate is the most talented actress of her generation.”

Winslet has already earned Oscar buzz for her role in the film. And she may double her chances a sixth nomination with her second anticipated film this fall, The Reader, due out Dec. 12.

“How the hell did I get that lucky [to have two compelling roles] in the same 12-month period?,” she says. “It’s really rare and remarkable, and I don’t take that position lightly. It might not happen like that again; I’m well aware of that. You know, the truth is, I’m just going to bloody well make the most of it.”