Kate Winslet explained how her role in the sci-fi thriller “Contagion” helped prepare her during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
“I think it’s the unknown element of this virus,” the 44-year-old actress shared with the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Wednesday. (RELATED: Celebrate Kate Winslet’s Birthday With Her Best Red Carpet Looks [SLIDESHOW])
In the upcoming @AmmoniteMovie, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan choreographed a love scene together so intimate that it makes 2015 lesbian love drama ‘Carol,’ seem tame
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 26, 2020
“We just don’t know how it’s going to affect any given individual,” she added. “I think that was what’s so terrifying.” (RELATED: Kate Winslet Now ‘Regrets’ Working With Woody Allen And Harvey Weinstein)
Winslet continued, “I’m a very practical, straightforward person, and if I have to respond to an emergency, I just go into that zone.”
For her role in the 2011 thriller, the actress said she was embedded with CDC epidemiologists, who gave her first hand knowledge about fighting a pandemic.
The “Titanic” star went on to explain it was shortly after reports started coming out of the east about the virus that she started wearing a mask everywhere she went.
“People thought I was crazy because I had been walking around wearing a mask for weeks, going into the grocery store and wiping everything down with isopropyl alcohol and wearing gloves,” “The Reader” star said. “Then all of a sudden March 13 came around, and people were like, ‘F—k, where do I get one of those masks?'”
Back in April, Kate along with several co-stars from the film appeared in PSA about stopping the spread of the virus, per Fox News.
“In the movie Contagion, I played an epidemiologist trying to stop the spread of a hypothetical virus,” Winslet shared. “To prepare for the role, I spent time with some of the best public health professionals in the world. And what was one of the most important things they taught me? Wash your hands like your life depends on it because right now, in particular, it just might.”