"The Early Show" -- November 29, 2000

 

Following are the transcript and captures I have done of Kate's interview with Tom Fenton, which was broadcast today on "The Early Show".

 

[Host Bryant Gumbel introduced the segment, which was taped November 2 in London] Her new film is Quills, and it's based on the sexually provocative writings of the Marquis de Sade. In London, she recently sat down with our Tom Fenton.

[The segment opened with a shot of Tom and Kate talking and Kate laughing and saying] I just knew you were going to ask me that!

Tom: [voice-over a scene of them chatting] There are three things on Kate Winslet's mind this morning: her new baby, her privacy, and, oh yes, her new film. [Clips of Quills] Quills, with Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Caine is a far cry from the sweet, romantic roles that made her famous.

Kate: It's basically a take on the Marquis de Sade, I think, that no one has really seen before. Cause all we know of the Marquis de Sade is that he wrote incredibly sexually explicit, pornographic novels that were just disgusting. I mean, they were. I read some of them. They were absolutely outrageous and I had to put them down. It was that… And I don't get really shocked by things, but I was really shocked by some of the stuff I was reading. But rather than dwelling on the content of his stories, it displays a side of his life, a side of the man that I don't think we've really seen before.

Tom: [voice-over Quills clips] Kate Winslet plays a laundry maid in the mad house where the Marquis de Sade is imprisoned. [To Kate] Well, you have a reputation as an uncompromising, very brave, straightforward actress.

Kate: Mmm, that's right [laughs]. Well, I do like to be straight forward and I… Yeah, and being brave is very important because sometimes, you know, you can find yourself in scary situations at work, you know, when there are scenes that are difficult to do. And you can't run away from it, so you just have to go headlong into it. And I've always been like that as an actress, and I think in life as well, really.

Tom: [Clip of Kate at London Film Festival premiere of Quills November 3] Well, you're a bit of a role model, too. How shall I put it delicately? You're a role model for women who don't exactly fit the bill as an anorexic model.

Kate: Well, good [chuckling]. That's nice to hear you say that I'm a role model 'cause I would hope to be that. Because it is, I think, very important that… You know, there are young women in the world today who think that to be successful, and to be loved, and to be beautiful, you have to be thin. Now, that's just absurd, absolutely absurd. And, also, having become successful and not being stick thin, you know, I obviously want to sort of wave that flag a bit as well, and just say, 'look, hey, I did it. You know, I did it, and I'm not, you know, I'm not a size four or a size six.'

Tom: Do you mind doing the nude scenes?

Kate: No, not if they're right for the story. No, I mean I always accept that they're difficult scenes to do. You know, that will never change. And whenever, you know, the day comes to shoot the nude scene, and I'm absolutely dreading it and thinking, 'oh no, you know, I wish I wasn't doing this.' But, I've never agreed to a role if I haven't, you know, agreed to the nudity as well, if it's there.

Tom: [voice over brief clip of Kate and Jim on their wedding day, outside pub, posing for photos] Two years ago, she married Assistant Director Jim Threapleton, whom she met while making the film Hideous Kinky in Morocco. [To Kate] You carve out a little bit of private life. How do you do that?

Kate: You just do, you're just determined about it. That's what I find, I'm very determined about it. And I'm just very determined about having my life and being sure that no one else really knows about it. Because it is obviously very important to me, particularly now that we've got Mia.

Tom: [voice over the 'first pic' of Mia with Kate and Jim] Mia, her new baby, was born last month. [To Kate] Yes, congratulations. That's your latest production.

Kate: That's my latest production, that's my best production so far. She's just great. It's really sort of an amazing feeling. It feels very kind of strange to be doing these interviews today because I'm in the real world again, and I haven't been in the real world since she was born. You sort of go into this kind of cocoon and become incredibly protective. And she's just amazing. She's already sort of changed me and changed our lives, and she's wonderful, really wonderful.

Tom: Well, it's a little premature to ask you, but how do you intend to balance being a working mother and your duty towards your daughter?

Kate: Well, I'm not working for sort of six or seven months now. She's three weeks old today, so I'm going to spend all of that time, obviously, with her and just not do anything at all. But then, actors are very neurotic and one minute they're saying they never want to work again, and the following week they're panicking about where the next job's gonna come from. So, you never know.

Tom: [voice-over the two of them chatting, Kate laughing] Her next job is a film adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin. And she's producing it as well. Meanwhile, there's Mia, and no, she won't let us take her picture.

Kate: [laughing] No way can you take her picture.

Tom: For "The Early Show" I'm Tom Fenton in London.

Bryant: [in studio, to co-host Jane] I like her, she's pretty normal.
Jane: Protective mum already.
Bryant: Yeah, but a very normal person. Guess where she had her wedding reception?
Jane: Where's that?
Bryant: In a local pub.
Jane: Good for her.
Bryant: Right. No big security, no big hotel [a reference to the Douglas/Zeta-Jones wedding?]. Normal person.
Jane: She is normal.

 

 

Back to 'Rewind2' Page