“Titanic” was a huge blockbuster hit that launched Kate Winslet to superstardom, but that wasn’t all smooth sailing for the famous actress.
Winslet spoke out about what it was really like to attain the level of fame associated with the legendary film, during a recent interview with People, which was published Monday.
“I felt like I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant,” Winslet said.
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The famous actress, who was just 22 when the movie was released in 1997, admitted that the notoriety that came with the film was a bit too much for her to handle at times. She also recalled the distinct feelings of discomfort and pressure that came along with James Cameron’s iconic production.
The media continuously swarmed around Winslet and her co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, after the film’s release, and the spotlight wasn’t always a welcoming place to be.
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“Journalists would always say, ‘After Titanic, you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these small things’ … and I was like, ‘Yeah, you bet your life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible,'” Winslet told People.
In spite of the constant scrutiny, the Academy Award winner still recognizes the value of the film, not just to her bottom line, and her overall career, but to the general public.
“It’s not a burden, any of it,” she said. “[Titanic] continues to bring people huge amounts of joy.”
“The only time I am like, ‘Oh God, hide,’ is if we are on a boat somewhere,'” Winslet quipped.
During a Jan. 2021 appearance on the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast, Winslet revealed that she went “into self-protective mode right away,” after starring as Rose in “Titanic,” because she felt bullied by the UK media.
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“Also, I was subject to quite a lot of also personal physical scrutiny, and criticized quite a lot — the British press were actually quite unkind to me,” she told the hosts. “I felt quite bullied, if I’m honest,” (RELATED: ‘I Have Impending-Doom Feelings Most Of The Day’: Billie Eilish Says Fame Takes A Huge Toll On Her)
“I remember just thinking, ‘Okay, well, this is horrible and I hope it passes.’ And it did definitely pass but it also made me realize that if that’s what being famous was, I was not ready to be famous, thank you. No, definitely not,” Winslet explained on Maron’s podcast.