Kate Winslet says she ‘desperately tried’ to recast herself in Goodbye June

The actor is directing, starring in and producing her newest feature

Kate Winslet has described how she “desperately tried to recast” herself after learning she could also direct Goodbye June, in addition to producing and starring in it.

Written by Winslet’s 21-year-old son Joe Anders, Goodbye June is about four adult children who reunite in response to the failing health of their mother during Christmastime.

Winslet opened up about why she ended up also starring in her directorial debut, even though she believed she “cannot do three jobs”.

“I know I'm good at multitasking, but this is too many things. I desperately tried to recast myself [and] had a really good list of a handful of people who would have been absolutely brilliant in that role,” the Mare of Easttown star told Digital Spy.

“But at that point... well, first of all, Netflix were like, 'Uh-uh' and secondly, I'd cast all these incredible actors. How could I not go and play with them? Because that's what we do. We play, we pretend and it's an amazing thing.”

Kate Winslet has shared that she ‘desperately tried to recast myself’ after learning she could also direct ‘Goodbye June’ (© 2025 Netflix, Inc.)

In Goodbye June, Winslet plays one of June’s daughters, Julia, alongside Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette and Johnny Flynn as her siblings, and Dame Helen Mirren portrays June. Harry Potter star Timothy Spall plays their father, Bernie.

Producing the film, which was inspired in part by the death of her own mother, took a personal toll on Winslet. Her mother, Sally Bridges-Winslet, died in 2017 from ovarian cancer.

“I know it sounds a bit like sickly, but we had to really become a family in order to make it feel real as real as possible and as relatable as possible. You can't just show up and do the job and go home again, it becomes something else. We were lucky on this film that that really happened,” Winslet said.

Earlier this month, Winslet revealed that she and her son had originally created a wishlist of actors they would like to play each character.

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“They all said yes,” the Titanic star shared, noting that Mirren was the last person she spoke to. “It was not easy, and yet it was very straightforward,” she added of getting the British icon to sign on.

Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet in ‘Goodbye June’ (Netflix)

Winslet said Mirren told her that she had two rules – she would not “play anyone with dementia” or “someone who’s dying”.

However, Mirren asked Winslet to send her the script anyway and described it as sounding “really lovely”. A week later, Winslet received an email from Mirren, saying, “I’ll break my rule. I’d love to support you.”

In a two star review of the film, The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote that the “rendering of this family feels paper-thin”.

“Winslet, however, might be too much of an actor to be a director. The performances here are irreproachable, and she even coaxes some beautiful moments from the film’s many child stars, but there’s very little film to be found built around them.”

Goodbye June was released in select UK cinemas on 12 December and will be available for streaming on Netflix on Christmas Eve.