'The Late Show With David Letterman' - April 14, 1999
Following
are the transcript and screen captures I did:
Dave: [To the bandleader] How many times did you see
Titanic, Paul, 10?
Paul: Oh, you know…
Dave: You and I saw it five times together.
Paul: Then we went with individual dates and then we started going together again…at least ten.
Dave:
Then we bought it when it was released on home video, and then we bought the
rights to it.
Paul: I wish.
Dave: Our first guest was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Titanic, the most successful film in the history of the universe, ladies and gentlemen. Her latest film entitled Hideous Kinky, opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. Here is Kate Winslet - Kate. [Kate's entrance can't be described in words - she did a little dance as she walked on stage to join David, to thunderous applause.]
Welcome back. How are ya?
Kate: I'm fine.
When was the last time you were here?
The last time I was here was about a year ago…
About a year ago? Was your life…was it turned upside down and get crazy for you when this Titanic thing exploded?
It
did get crazy, and so many people said to me, 'you know, oh, your life is going
to completely change' and everything. And I was a bit kind of frightened because
I didn't really want anything to change. And it did go really sort of explosive
for a while, but, you know, me, myself and all my family and everything like
that…nothing really sort of fundamentally changed.
So far it's been very good for you, then.
It's been great, yeah; it's been unbelievable. I mean, no one knew what was going to happen with that film, and it just did what it did, and, you know, I'll always be grateful.
Everywhere you go people know you, they see you, they're happy to see you, they're nice to you and stuff?
Yeah, everyone's always very, very nice. And I'm sort of lucky for that.
It's interesting to me because right after the success of this film, and it's still doing business, isn't it?
Yeah, it just doesn't go away. The other night we were in the hotel room and it was on HBO, I think. And I just said, 'no! You've just got to turn it off. I can't…' Cause I saw it so many times, you know, last year…
That's good news for the folks at HBO! Ah, turn it off.
Sorry! But I couldn't, I just couldn't.
In a couple of weeks Titanic - I just read this in the paper - is opening on Neptune, ladies and gentlemen. But, what was the final dollar figure? Not that that's the ultimate way to judge a movie, but how much did the thing end of making, like a billion bucks?
I just…it went way over that, but to be honest with you, I kind of lost count of how much money it was taking in.
Now - and I don't want to be personal, and if this is none of my business, by all means tell me so - but, did you get a taste of that?
No [smiling].
So, when you're hired to do the film, you agree on a price…
Yes.
And it has nothing to do with what might happen to the ultimate success of the motion picture?
No.
Wow!
In some cases…in my instance I think it was kind of very different because, although I was very well known in England and I was sort of known over here, I wasn't like, you know a big box office name. So, I wasn't gonna be necessarily a big selling point. So, I think, you know, in that instance it was just, you know, base rate salary. But, I think for other people…I've heard they do get percentages and whatever, so…
But for you…are you the kind of person that's not necessarily…I mean, obviously, everybody wants to make a living and be comfortable and take care of their family. But you are more interested in just the pursuit of the art of acting? Is that safe to say?
Absolutely. Can I just say I really love acting? You know, I love my job so much.
Good for you.
And it's just something that I grew up with, grew up doing, and sort of knew that I was going to always do it. And so, you know, I did Titanic, and then Hideous Kinky had, you know, a three million pound budget, which is something completely different. So, it's not all kind of fame and fortune.
Still be nice to have a sniff of that Titanic money, wouldn't it? Just open your nose a little bit on that one? Now, of course…and I'm being silly here, but there isn't going to be a sequel to the Titanic, is there? [Laughter and applause from audience]
[Laughing] No, not that I know of, not that I know of.
There might be.
[Laughing] Well, what are they going to do - raise it? Raise the thing?
I don't know, they might. But now they're building a hotel in Las Vegas the exact replica of the Titanic.
I didn't even know about that. I mean, it just never stops.
Yeah, it keeps going and going and going. But it's a great story. It's a sad, sad story, obviously, but nonetheless, an epic story, and that's why people embraced it so much.
It was just this humongous, great big thing, you know. As I was saying, I just didn't know that was going to happen. I heard that young girls were having Titanic parties.
Really?
And
there was some kind of poll of, you know, how many people had been to see it and
how many times they'd been and stuff. And someone had been, I think, something
like 36 times, or something like that. They must have known it all by heart.
But, when you come through an experience like this…and I know in show business people get together and work very closely on a project for three or four months, five months, six months, whatever. And then they separate and go their various ways. Have you stayed in touch with the cast because this was such a colossal thing?
Yeah, I have. I've stayed in touch with a few of them. I mean, I still speak to Leo, so…but I haven't spoken to him in a while.
Leonardo DiCaprio?
Yes,
the man.
Hollywood pretty boy.
Hollywood pretty boy, but he's in Thailand now, I think, doing The Beach, which is a Danny Boyle movie, so, I mean, I just don't actually know how to contact him.
What was your life like with Leo?
Great, great.
Tell me something you haven't told people before about Leo.
What can I tell you I haven't told you before? I think…
He's a tiny man, isn't he? [Audience laughs at the double meaning.]
No, he's very tall. [Not getting his meaning at first]
Very tall?
All
right, OK, OK…[Audience is still laughing.] I
thought he was a…I'm not…[puts hands over her mouth]…I can't go there, I
can't go there.
I thought he was a short guy, I thought he was like a short man.
Yeah, I believe what…
Like at one time he considered a career as a jockey?
Absolutely, yeah, I know what you're saying. No, he, um…
[To audience] What?
I
can't answer this question now. I can't answer this question without 
feeling
completely stupid.
But did you guys become good friends? Were you...Like, are you still…Like, when he comes back from Thailand will you get together and reminisce and stuff?
Well, we'll probably talk. I mean, we live, you know, on opposite ends of the world. But, yeah, we talk on the phone and stuff. So, no, it's great. He's more like a kind of member of my family than a kind of friend or anything like that. Which is why, you know, it was so easy to do all the stuff we had to do together. There was never any kind of, 'oh, God, I can't do this in front of this person because I don't know him very well.' You know, we got to know each other so, so, so well. And I have to say he is really funny, you know. And one day he should so do comedy cause he's absolutely hilarious. I mean, he had me wetting my pants. [Audience laughs and cheers.] Can I say that? [Paul says: We can't go there.] Sorry.
He's that funny, is he?
He's that funny. He is, he really is, yep.
I've been wasting my time. I haven't gotten anybody to wet their pants in twenty years. But, you know, then, of course…And forgive me because this is just right off of Entertainment Tonight. You do this one big, big, giant movie, and then everybody thinks, 'what's the next one gonna be? Is it gonna be even bigger?' Well, that's preposterous. It can't be.
Completely. Of course it's ridiculous.
But, nonetheless, the pressure, real or imagined…Or maybe it's no greater than when you select any film.
Well, I think the pressure was kind of there. But, I just thought, no. I just want to do something that's completely different. And that was why I wanted to do Hideous Kinky. I'd read the novel, which I don't think is as well known here.
Tell them what the novel is. Now, this was written by a great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud?
Absolutely right. Ester Freud wrote the novel, and I'd read it when I was 17. Someone had given it to me as a present. And it's autobiographical. Esther is the five-year-old child in the story. And, suddenly, this screenplay comes through. And my initial reaction was, 'that it just so brave.' Because the story itself…It's almost like a little road movie. It's very kind of colorful. And it's a lot to do with sort of joy and happiness, and how this woman brings up these two little children…
It's Mom and the two daughters, they leave London…
They leave London. She was having a horrible time there, you know, doing lots of part-time jobs, never seeing the kids. And she just thought, 'this is no way to live.' And it was, you know, late sixties when everyone was just going out to Morocco and doing the whole traveling thing there. And she just wanted to offer her children something new and something completely different. And I just think it really says a lot about how you can raise children in a really kind of secure way, and happy, on absolutely no money. You know, that's what I admire so much.
It's an interesting story and an interesting time, and the combination of cultures overlapping and so forth. You got sick when you were there in Morocco, huh?
I got very sick.
You had the dysentery?
I did.
That's nasty stuff, isn't it?
It was horrible.
How do you get that, exactly?
Well, I think it's an airborne thing. This is what people tell me.
Oh, really. Is it a bacteria or a virus?
I think it's a virus and…[We hear a bell ring, as if to say 'correct answer'. The audience laughs because Dave had mentioned at the beginning of the show that he was upset with the control room staff. They're getting back at him here.] OK, so what's that about, then?
I'm in the middle of a blood feud with the control room. Forget what you saw here tonight. [Looking at camera] Please don't involve innocent people, all right? So you came down with it, and it just knocks you over, doesn't it?
Knocks you over.
Yeah, you were in the hospital for like, four days?
In a hospital, and I was meant to be going to the Titanic premiere in the UK, and I'd flown back from Morocco. And it was this whole big thing, and I got off the plane...And then the next morning I woke up and I just thought, 'I just feel absolutely awful.' I was so delirious I was seeing people walking across the radiator in my house, and it was absolutely…[audience laughs]…No, I really was. It was absolutely terrible. And then, straight to the hospital, and I missed the premiere, missed all the press, everything.
Now, once you've had it, will you always carry this with you, or are you immune to it now?
Someone tells me you can't get it again, but it apparently stays in your body. And I think it's weakened my stomach, but, you know, it's not a big deal.
I'm glad you're well. And you're married again. We didn't get a chance to talk about your husband.
I'm married - come on! [Audience applauds]
Not married "again," but you're married.
I'm married. [To audience] Thank you.
What are we doing? Do we have time to look at a clip, or not? Because that would make us late, and that would cause more work for the control room, right? Let's look at a clip. Here we go - roll it. [Clip of fight over pink trousers] We didn't really explain that, I'm sorry. But you're having a disagreement, obviously.
Yeah. So, what's happening there is - when they were in Morocco, because they didn't have much money. And there were times when they had absolutely no money. And they were living in lots of different places, and this was a sort of lodging house where there were women next door who were prostitutes. And they'd stolen my pink trousers, so I was getting them back.
It's Hideous Kinky, and these were words that the little girls heard and put into a little game.
That's right, it was a game they used to play.
It opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. Good to see you again.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Kate Winslet, ladies and gentlemen.
