Gulf News

Kate reveals bullying ordeal

British actress was only 21 when she starred in the hit James Cameron film

- By Bindu Rai Entertainm­ent Editor

The dark side of fame can be exceptiona­lly brutal to female stars. British actress Kate Winslet is the living proof of this as she spoke about feeling bullied in the aftermath of the success of Titanic.

Speaking on Marc Maron’s podcast, Winslet spoke about the global success of her 1997 release bringing a lot of scrutiny into her personal life.

The actress was only 21 years old when she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the James Cameron doomed romance.

“I went into self-protective mode right away,” Winslet said. “It was like night and day from one day to the next. I was subject to a lot of personal physical scrutiny, I was criticised a lot and the British press were quite unkind to me.”

The actress continued: “I felt bullied if I’m honest. I remember thinking, ‘this is horrible and I hope it passes’ -- it did definitely pass but it made me realise that, if that’s what being famous was, I was not ready to be famous, definitely not.”

Instead of cashing in on her newfound fame, Winslet retreated into doing smaller roles to move away from the spotlight. “I still felt like I wasn’t really ready to do lots of big Hollywood jobs. It was a huge responsibi­lity. I didn’t want to make mistakes, I didn’t want to blow it — I wanted to be in it for the long game. So I did strategica­lly try and find smaller things, just so I could understand the craft a bit better and understand myself a bit better, and maintain some degree of privacy and dignity,” Winslet said.

 ?? Photos by AFP, Reuters and Gulf News Archive ??
Photos by AFP, Reuters and Gulf News Archive

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