Kate Winslet Said She Felt “Bullied” as a Young Actress Amid ‘Titanic’ Success

During the January 14th episode of Marc Maron’s podcast WTF, actress Kate Winslet described being “bullied” by the press after the explosive release of James Cameron’s Titanic, in which she played the young upperclass socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson. “I was subject to a lot of personal physical scrutiny,” Winslet told Maron. “I was criticized a lot and the British press were quite unkind to me.”

“I went into self-protective mode right away [after Titanic‘s release],” Winslet said, adding that she found it “weird” that British paparazzi were following her to the corner store to get milk mere days after the film’s premiere. “It was like night and day from one day to the next.”

I felt quite bullied if I’m honest, she said. I remember thinking, ‘this is horrible and I hope it passes.’ And it did definitely pass but it made me realize that, if that’s what being famous was, I was not ready to be famous, thank you. Definitely not.

When Winslet first walked onto the scene with her role in Titanic, she was only 20 years old and “still learning how to act,” she said, noting that she only began acting three years prior to scoring her Titanic role.

I felt I wasn’t ready to do lots of big Hollywood jobs…I didn’t want to make mistakes and blow it, I wanted to be in it for the long game. I did strategically try and find small things so I could understand the craft a bit better and maintain some degree of privacy and dignity.

“And try to have a life?” Maron asked, to which Winslet responded, “Yeah exactly.” And after having her daughter at age 25, Winslet realized she no longer cared as much about the tabloids and press—she had bigger fish to fry.

The tides have turned, so to speak, and Winslet is now the subject of mega-praise rather than scrutiny. She’s currently being considered for an Oscar for her role in Ammonite, co-starring Saoirse Ronan. Kate Winslet bullies? We simply do not have time for them.