Kate Winslet Is Over the Money ‘Wasted on Colossal Junkets’ and Stress of Awards Season

Ryan Lattanzio
·3 min read

Kate Winslet made headlines this week for a revealing interview with Vanity Fair where she questioned her choices in ever working with directors Woody Allen (on “Wonder Wheel”) and Roman Polanski (on “Carnage”). But in the candid conversation, the Academy Award-winning actress, whose “Ammonite” just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is a possible Oscar player, also sounded off on what she thinks is the “colossal” amount of money “wasted” on promoting movies, and the stress of the awards derby.

“The question of how Hollywood will change is probably not something that any of us could fully answer quite this far out,” Winslet said of the new Hollywood faced with how to grapple creatively with the pandemic, and the rollout of films amid the global crisis. “But it is clearly changing significantly.”

Winslet said the experience of promoting her new film virtually has also been more satisfying. “Just experiencing the little bit of press that I have been doing to support ‘Ammonite’…I love not getting into those fucking dresses and those fucking shoes. All the money. It’s always really pained me, the money that gets wasted on colossal, great big junkets: flying journalists, actors, glam squads all over the world. Why the hell is any of that important?”

She added, “It’s always been so baffling to me — the hoopla and the wasted money that could be better put to making more independent films, number one, or building fucking classrooms. Jesus Christ, you know?”

With regard to awards season, which Winslet could be entering this year for her turn as a self-made paleontologist in a blooming lesbian affair with Saoirse Ronan, she said, “The dresses, the stress, the dress fittings…It’s so stressful, and I know that sounds like, ‘Oh, here goes Kate Winslet talking about how stressful it is to do dress fittings for award shows.’ But it is stressful. I don’t like having to squeeze my hot-and-bothered mum-on-the-school-run body randomly into a red carpet dress that I’m never going to wear again. The money that’s wasted on it. The hours and stress that people pour into these things. The incredible artists who make these dresses are wonderful, but to make something that’s only going to be worn once…I’ve already decided I’m doing repeat dresses. Everything will have to be let out, but whatever.”

Head over to Vanity Fair’s website to read more from Winslet’s latest profile.

More from IndieWire

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.