Best Actress Oscar nominee Kate Winslet sits down with ABC News “Nightline’s” Cynthia McFadden and shares her thoughts on her sixth nomination and how she prepared for her Oscar-nominated role in the film “The Reader”.
Winslet can currently be seen in her two incredible Golden Globe–winning performances, in “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader”. “The Reader” could yield a long-overdue Oscar win for her. She has been nominated six times, a record for someone her age.
As part of “Nightline’s” Inside Hollywood series leading up to the Academy Awards, Ms. Winslet talks about how she prepared for her role as a Nazi prison guard, the busy awards season, and the challenge of juggling her career and motherhood.
On her nomination:
McFadden: Nominated for the Oscar again. Sixth time’s a charm, do you think?
Winslet: I can honestly say, for a start, I’m tremendously lucky that in my life I have received these nominations and got to play these extraordinary parts but I think this year more than any other year that I have been aware of it feels very, very special.
McFadden: Will you expect you’re not going to pretend you don’t want it? That you do want to win this year?
Winslet: Well, I said I’d like to at some point in my life.
She continues: But now it would be a feeling for me if it were to happen at some point in my life on just personal satisfaction. What an amazing feeling that would be for me to have been doing this for 15, 16 years and to now what it feels like to lose a great many times. It would be nice to know what it feels like in that situation to win sometime.
McFadden: Indeed, if you don’t win this year you’re going to get a distinction all of its own. The most-nominated non-winner.
Winslet: The most-nominated loser, which is what I’ve been hearing people saying. Yes, no, I don’t really want to be the most-nominated loser…
McFadden: Did it hurt a little bit not to get nominated for “Revolutionary Road”?
Winslet: I can’t say that — I am so genuinely happy that I have been nominated for “The Reader”. I really, really am. I mean, it was a huge turning point for me, that film, because I — when I first read the script, you know, I really thought, oh, no, no, I can’t do this. I mean, I really don’t think I’ve got the stuff to do this. I don’t have enough — I don’t have enough tools with which to play this part.
On her Golden Globe win:
McFadden: We all know you were surprised by the second win… So when you got to the podium, unprepared we might say.
Winslet: Completely unprepared. She continued: So you win some, you lose some. I mean — the one thing that has surprised me about this thing of winning awards is that I thought that people just reviewed the films. I didn’t realize that they reviewed speeches, too. I mean, I really didn’t know that. Call me stupid but I had no idea. I don’t tend to read reviews of things but when people are reviewing a speech and being somewhat unkind about it, well, what can you say, but no, I wasn’t prepared at all. I really didn’t think I was going to win and I was genuinely overwhelmed…
On Her Role as a Nazi Prison Guard:
McFadden: How did you come to feel about her at the end of the day?
Winslet: I can’t say that I liked her, no. But I can say that I understood her fully…I do think it is crucial as an actor to understand the role that you’re playing, really, and to empathize with them and the choices that they do or they don’t make.
On Body Image:
Winslet: I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t look at herself in the mirror before she walks out, whether it’s for a date with her husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, red carpet event… I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t stand up and check the tushie before she walks out the door and those women will go, uh. You know? Most do. I’ve decided I am going to start loving my backside, really just saying, yes. Because I don’t know anyone who does that, you know? And for my daughter I want to be able to say to her, I love this, I love this, look, my belly does this because I had you guys and this is what happens to breasts when you nurse two children. Gravity and nature takes its toll and I don’t want to be batting her away, saying, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t want to do that. I want her to say, yeah, yeah, great. No one ever did that for me. Never.
“Nightline” is anchored by Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran, and Martin Bashir. James Goldston is the executive producer. “Nightline airs at 11:35 p.m. (ET/PT) weeknights on the ABC Television Network.
