Kate Winslet recalls ‘straight-up cruel’ treatment by tabloids post ‘Titanic’

Los Angeles, Dec. 18 (IANS): ‘Titanic’ actress Kate Winslet is calling out the tabloid treatment she received early in her career.

The Academy Award winner, 47, recently got candid about her experience in the 1997 James Cameron blockbuster ‘Titanic’, including the “awful” body-shaming she faced from the media and the public, as she appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast ahead of the film’s 25th anniversary, reports People magazine.

“Apparently, I was too fat,” Winslet told host Josh Horowitz of some of the more insulting arguments about why Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) couldn’t fit on that door prior to his death. “Isn’t it awful? Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even f******* fat.”

She continued: “If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice in a completely different way…. I would have said to journalists, I would have responded: ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’ That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”

According to People, she’s previously opened up about the “straight-up cruel” treatment she got from tabloids, telling The Guardian last February: “I was still figuring out who the hell I bloody well was!”

“They would comment on my size, they’d estimate what I weighed, they’d print the supposed diet I was on,” Winslet recalled. “It was critical and horrible and so upsetting to read.”