Actor Kate Winslet has portrayed several characters in her three-decade-long career. However, the actors has revealed that she continues to struggle with "re-entry" into her own life after portraying troubled characters on screen.
In an interview with Lessons from Our Mothers podcast, Winslet said, "There's this thing that happens as an actor, and it sound very self indulgent so I very rarely say it. But when you play a really difficult part - I think of Mare of Easttown, for example, which flattened me, my god - you do have to kind of come out the other side."
"I call it re-entry. Re-entry into your own life, going back into your friendships, reintegrating into the rhythm of family again. Exiting a family, leaving people behind, letting a character go," she continued, noting that it takes "a while" to take character away from the body and its system when they have played it on screen for a long time, especially in TV series like Mare of Easttown.
The actor revealed that she needed professional help after starring in the 2021 crime drama, which saw her portray a troubled Pennsylvania detective after the coronavirus pandemic caused havoc with the production.
Recalling the experience, she explained, "It was meant to be a six-month shoot. COVID happened after the five months that we had been shooting, and everything got pushed, and when we came back, our five remaining weeks turned into 10. By the end of the whole thing, I'd been playing that character for over a year. And I really, honestly, went a bit mad. It was quite weird. It's the only time in my life that I actually had to get some proper help, to come back to myself."
Winslet added, "It sounds completely insane, and even as I say it, I feel quite uncomfortable saying it, because I'm aware of how bonkers and indulgent that can sound."
The Academy Award-winning actor revealed that she is able to offer that help to her son Joe Anders, as he now stars in the new series Cape Fear. "He's a few months out the other side of that, and he's still in the experience of the re-entry. I'm able to actively support my son in this moment in his life, when actually, the mothering does kick in again on a very cellular level.
Good meals, good walk, let's get in the sea. Don't need to talk today? That's fine. Want to stay in bed today? Absolutely fine. You don't need to do anything. Doesn't matter. Do nothing and be okay with it," she said.
The actor recently made her directorial debut with Goodbye June, written by Winslet’s son Joe Anders. It follows four siblings, played by Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn, who reunite as their ailing mother, portrayed by Helen Mirren, declines during the festive season. The film had a limited theatrical release and debuted on Netflix on December 24.
