Kate Winslet on playing an Avatar 2 warrior who's also pregnant: 'That is just so cool'
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Hollywood rarely depicts pregnant women as physically formidable forces on screen, but Kate Winslet gets to bring one of those rare roles to life.
The Oscar winner discusses the impact of appearing in Avatar: The Way of Water as Ronal, the more spiritual leader of the reef-dwelling Metkayina Na'vi tribe who's seen in the film charging into the heat of battle while with child.
Winslet tells EW that director James Cameron had already made the call that Ronal would be pregnant. "I just thought, 'My god, that is just so cool,'" she says. "Jim has so much admiration for women and pregnant women and what pregnant women are capable of, and how pregnant women are actually much more resilient and physically capable than I think often people give us credit for or would expect."
Karwai Tang/WireImage; 20th Century Studios Kate Winslet stars as Ronal, who leads the Metkayina clan with Tonowari, in 'Avatar: The Way of Water.'
"The things we can achieve, I mean, my God, I don't know a single pregnant woman who found out she was pregnant, sat down, and did nothing," the actress adds. "You just become kind of bionic; you feel like you are absolutely superhuman. And so for Jim to really harness that quality and ability and put it into its Na'vi form, it was just amazing. I loved that so much."
Avatar: The Way of Water picks up years after the events of the first film, which hit theaters in 2009 and became the highest-grossing movie in the world. The nefarious RDA from Earth has returned to try to colonize the moon of Pandora, home to the Na'vi.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) now has a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) that includes the young Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Bliss), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion). Jake is leading his clan to disrupt the RDA's supply chains until he's forced to disappear with his family for their protection. Hunted by Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), back from the dead after his consciousness gets uploaded to a Na'vi Avatar body, the Sullys seek refuge with the Metkayina, who teach them how to adapt to water life.
Ronal is a Metkayina chieftan alongside Cliff Curtis' Tonowari. Cameron told EW that while Tonowari is the "Olo'eyktan," meaning the male leader who handles "hunting, weaving," and "any kind of fabrication work," Ronal is the "Tsahìk," meaning "the spiritual leader, the shaman, the keeper of wisdom."
20th Century Studios Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) lead the Metkayina clan in 'Avatar: The Way of Water.'
"I remember thinking she was so much more juicy and feminine than I had imagined in my mind," Winslet recalls of seeing the first mock-ups of her character. "Strangely, I imagined she would feel much more severe and almost older in a way, just because the role was so wise and so powerful. I sort of associate those qualities with people who are older than me and cleverer and more worldly. So it was really nice to see just how feminine and free she was. I wasn't expecting that."
Seeing that concept art and visualization helped shape Winslet's performance, as did Ronal's role as a mother in the film. Once Avatar: The Way of Water started shooting in New Zealand, Winslet says they decided Ronal "would really be the mother who was helping the other young new mothers" in the context of the story.
"She was almost the shamanic figure in the community, as well, bringing age-old traditions and things that she had learned, whether it was potions and herbs and spells and chants and rituals that would help people to heal or with fertility and so on," she explains. "Those were things that we were also able to add. They are certainly things that really interest me, so I appreciated that because it not just gave her more of a specific role within the community as a mother, but it really embedded a sense of togetherness that was led by a woman. She was that leader making those decisions, looking out for everyone, not just her own kin."
Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters this Friday.
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