The Titanic star reveals Thompson took her under her wing while they worked together on the set of period drama Sense and Sensibility, and helped the then-teenage Kate navigate her way through Hollywood. Now Winslet, 40, would love to follow in Emma’s footsteps and offer the same kind of guidance to her young peers.
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“I do feel that now is a time, more than ever, that the experiences that I have had – which have been wonderful – it’s time for me to pass that on a little bit, you know, to be that person that Emma Thompson was for me for example, when I did Sense and Sensibility,” Kate told U.S. breakfast show Today. “She was 36, I was 19; I was young and thin and terrified, and she scooped me up and just kind of went, ‘OK, listen, I’ll look after you.’ And it’s really nice for me now to be in a position where I can do that for some other people.”
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The star also views her huge career success, which saw her win the Best Actress Oscar in 2009 for her movie The Reader, as “revenge” on the kids who used to bully her when she was a child. “I was kind of bullied when I was younger, actually at school,” she explained. “For being chubby, you know, I had girls who were envious of me because I was acting a little bit as a teenager. “This is my revenge. This right here, this lovely career I have been blessed with. I have healthy children. You know, I have a really happy life and, to me, it’s like, ‘Well, look at me now girls!'”