Years ago, Kate Winslet may have aced her performance as the gorgeous Rose in the fan-favorite Titanic – which she will eternally be remembered for, but perhaps nothing surpasses her performance in the Mare of Easttown saga. Not only is she seen bare-faced – yes, with pretty much little to no make-up – in the show but the actress also refused to mess with her weight for the role.
While her onscreen portrayal of Detective Sergeant Mare Sheehan in the HBO miniseries was perfect in itself, what caught fans off-guard was how she decided to keep her weight on while shooting it. Unsurprisingly enough, her weight factor was blown out of proportion among fans, who considered this move of hers brave. But this didn’t sit well with Winslet.
Kate Winslet was Bothered by Her Weight Getting Attention in Mare of Easttown
In Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet was seen in a much different role as she embodied detective Mare Sheehan, who investigates a teenage mother’s murder while trying to cope with her son’s suicide and raise her grandson. She didn’t prepare much for this: All she did was wear as little makeup as possible and keep her weight on to resemble her character as much as possible.
But while Winslet’s intention was to stay true to her character when she decided to keep her weight on, this one fact about her seems to have gained a lot more viewer attention than was intended or expected. This stands true even for the 49-year-old actress herself, as she confessed to The Guardian: “The discussion about how Mare looked blew my mind.”
Continuing in the interview, she shared the questions and opinions that people had about her as they pointed out how she didn’t change her body for the sake of being n-ked for a few scenes. “People were asking, ‘Did she gain weight? Didn’t she look frumpy? Wasn’t that brave of her?’ But why should that be brave?” The mother of three questioned herself.
If anything, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind actress wanted to eliminate this very portrayal of leading female stars being in perfect shape for their respective roles. As she went on to say, “I suppose because it’s not how leading actresses are represented. Maybe Mare will be the tipping point, and we’re going to stop scrutinizing women on screen quite so much.”
Of course, actresses do often tend to get scrutinized over the way they look onscreen with all the make-up and perfect body shape and size. And Winslet, for one, wasn’t going to allow her character of Mare to become yet another addition to that list. Thus, she stayed as true to her character as ever, even going to extremes to soil her outfits to make her embodiment look real.
Kate Winslet Did Everything She Could to Give a Realistic Performance as Mare
While becoming the talk of the town because of the weight she carried around and refused to mess with for the sake of her character in Mare of Easttown was one thing, it wasn’t the only thing Winslet did to give as much of a realistic performance as the detective as possible. As she continued to share during the same interview:
We were always saying on set: ‘That’s too TV. Keep it real.’ I’d constantly be rubbing Marmite into the knees of my jeans, or scuffing up my sneakers with a Brillo pad. You can’t just make one thing feel real: it has to be everything.
Inevitably enough, they perfectly managed to deliver just the essence they wanted to through the series considering how it not only earned a star-studded 95% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes but even won Kate Winslet her much-deserved Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her beyond-epic performance as Mare.
Mare of Easttown can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
