Kate Winslet shares frustration over ‘wrinkles’ comments during Lee promotion

Kate Winslet has voiced her frustrations over viewers’ reaction to her appearance in her latest project.

The Titanic star, 49, stars as celebrated war photojournalist Lee Miller in Ellen Kura’s biopic, which is adapted from Miller’s son’s 1985 biography, The Lives of Lee Miller.

In the passion project, which took Winslet almost a decade to complete due to development and financing delays, she wears minimal makeup and has natural wrinkles on her face.

Speaking to 60 Minutes, Winslet explained her annoyance that viewers had focussed on her appearance, claiming the same reaction would not occur if the lead actor were male.

“People say, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You didn’t wear any makeup.’ You know, "You had wrinkles,’” she explained.

“Do we say to the men, ‘Oh, you were so brave for this role. You grew a beard?’ No. We don’t,” Winslet added.

It comes shortly after Winslet told Vogue about the “unbelievably outraging” process of getting the film financed in September.

“The men who think you want and need their help are unbelievably outraging,” the Titanic star said about the “patronising” meetings she had with executives.

“I’ve even had a director say to me: ‘Listen, you do my film and I’ll get your little Lee funded…’ Little!” Winslet recalled.

“Or we’d have potential male investors saying things like: ‘Tell me, why am I supposed to like this woman?’”

While she acknowledged that attitudes towards women in the film and TV industry are changing, she also pointed out the progress that had been made thanks, in part, to the #MeToo movement.

“Oh, my God! This is the best part. Young actresses now – f*** me – they are unafraid. It makes me so proud,” Winslet said.

“And I think, Yes, all the s*** flinging, all the struggle, all the using my voice for years, often being finger-​pointed at and laughed at – I don’t give a s***!” she added.

“It was all bloody worth it. Because the culture is changing in the way that I couldn’t in my wildest dreams have imagined in my twenties.”

Winslet, who goes topless in Lee has previously criticised viewers who labelled her as “brave” for filming nude scenes without losing weight. “Brave is going to the front line. Brave is being a NHS nurse during Covid,” she said.

“It’s not flipping brave to go topless or have no makeup or no Botox…That’s just being a real person.”