Kate Winslet reacts to fat-shaming remarks on why Jack couldn’t get on the door in ‘Titanic’
“If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way,” the actress said. “I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this.'”
One of the famous scenes in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic has led to decades of controversy.
Ahead of the film’s 25th anniversary, Kate Winslet recently pondered on the scene in which her character, Rose DeWitt Bukater, remains afloat on a door as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jack Dawson, slides to his death, as well as the reaction she received from fans.
The Avatar: The Way of Water actress told Josh Horowitz on Friday’s episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, “Apparently I was too heavy,” in reference to people saying at the time that her character’s weight was the reason DiCaprio couldn’t get on the door.
“They were so mean. I wasn’t even fucking fat,” she said. “If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way. … I would have said to journalists, 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.”
Winslet has been candid about being fat-shamed and bullied when she was growing up. “They dubbed me Blubber,” she stated during a motivating lecture to students in London in 2017. She went on to say that when she decided to pursue acting, casting agents informed her she wasn’t what they were looking for: “I was even told that I would be lucky in my acting if I was happy to settle for the fat-girl parts.”
The Oscar winner for The Reader told Josh Horowitz that she believes remarks about bodies and how women look are “becoming better,” but that “we still have a long way to go.”
“It’s such an irresponsible thing to do and it feeds directly into young women aspiring to ideas of perfection that don’t exist,” Winslet continued. “I just wish there weren’t quite so many comments on the physical form of actresses. … You know, bodies are bodies. Everyone’s beautiful however they are and whatever they came with, you know. It still drives me kind of crazy. I definitely think we can do better with that stuff.”
In response to a frequently asked issue about whether Jack could have fit through the door in Titanic, the actress stated, “Once and for all, he could have fit through that door but it would not have stayed afloat,” and that it was not a “sustainable idea.”
The film, which won 11 Oscars and became the highest-grossing film of all time at the time, was released in theatres on December 19, 1997.