Kate Winslet says Titanic fame aged 22 was ‘horrible’

The Oscar-winning actor shared how global stardom in her early twenties was ‘quite unpleasant’

Kate Winslet has spoken out about how her life was “horrible” after the fame that followed Titanic.

Winslet shot to stardom aged 22 when she starred as Rose opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 international blockbuster.

Titanic won 11 awards at the Oscars in 1998, including Best Picture, and Winslet became the youngest person to achieve six nominations at the ceremony.

In a new interview, theI Am Ruth actor, 48, reflected on the emotional toll the movie’s success took on her and how media intrusion made her life difficult.

“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,” she told Net-a-Porter.

Winslet said that after Titanic, she was keen to take on smaller roles.

“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 f***in’ life I did!

“Because, guess what, being famous was horrible.’ I was grateful, of course. I was in my early twenties, and I was able to get a flat. But I didn’t want to be followed literally feeding the ducks.”

Kate Winslet starred alongside Leonardo Di Caprio in the record-breaking blockbuster movie (Paramount)

In 2022, Winslet revealed that she had been relentlessly body-shamed in the aftermath of Titanic.

“Apparently I was too fat,” she told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even f****** fat.”

“It’s different now. Mia is very much her own person. [Young women now] know how to use their voice.”

Speaking to Radio Times in 2022, director James Cameron reflected on shooting Titanic with Winslet and suggested that the actor was “a bit traumatised” by the scale of the production.

Winslet clarified that she doesn’t regret it despite the difficulties: “It’s not a burden, any of it. [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 will star in a forthcoming HBO show, titled The Regime, which will be released on 3 March.

The series is a satire following a year in the life of a modern authoritarian European regime as it unravels.

The Titanic star plays the role of Elena Vernhan, the chancellor of a Central European autocracy who finds her position under threat.