Kate Winslet is unflinchingly outspoken as she reprimands skin-and-bones models and actresses that influence young girls.
Kate Winslet, mother of two, finds today’s tendency towards thinner and thinner feminine silhouettes disturbing. While on BBC’s “Sunday AM” program, the critically acclaimed British actress stated that today’s ideal of beauty is dangerous for growing girls.
“It's so disturbing because young girls are impressionable from 11 up to 19 or 20 even. Women are very impressionable at those ages,” the actress said. She added, “They're trying to figure out who they are, and they want to be loved, and what I resent is that there is an image of perfection that is getting thinner and thinner, and it's truly upsetting to me.”
Kate, 31, is now married to English director Sam Mendes, with whom she has a 2-year-old son, Joe Alfie. Kate has a daughter, 6-year-old Mia Honey, from a previous marriage to director Jim Threapleton. She said she doesn’t keep magazines portraying ultra-thin women in her house, so as to protect her little girl.
“We don’t have any magazines in the house it's so damaging.” She also said she is afraid for Mia’s safety, as the years go by and she inevitably grows up: “It's only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it and it frightens the life out of me.” Kate, who has been an advocate of natural body weight for a long time now, openly opposing Hollywood’s standard of boniness, also noted that she has tried to be a positive, healthy example.
“I hope that in some small way I'm able to say, `I'm a normal person; I'm doing all right,'” she said. “I've got a lovely husband and children and I didn't lose weight to find those things, and those things are what should be important.”
Kate has not received an Academy Award yet but she has been nominated four times and she holds two records as Academy Award nominee: she is the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, and the most Oscar nominations of any actor before the age of 30 (having received a total of four nominations by that age). The roles that earned her the coveted Oscar nominations are from 1995’s “Sense and Sensibility”, 1997’s “Titanic”, 2001’s “Iris” and 2005’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.
She is currently promoting her most recent movie, “The Holiday”, in which she stars alongside Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law. This year also saw the release of “Little Children” (with Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Connelly), “All the King’s Men” (with Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law) and the animated “Flushed Away”, where Kate lends her voice to a rat named Rita.
Actress Kate Winslet has spoken out against the proliferation of "size zero" female stars and models.
Speaking on BBC One's Sunday AM, the 31-year-old mother of two called the trend "unbelievably disturbing".
"What I resent is that there is an image of perfection that is getting thinner and thinner."
The actress said she refused to have magazines in the house because of the damaging effect it could have on her six-year-old daughter, Mia.
"It's only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it and it frightens the life out of me," said the actress, who is promoting film comedy The Holiday, with Jude Law and Cameron Diaz.
She spoke of her admiration for actresses Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, adding "their faces move".
I'm a normal person, I'm doing all right, I've got a lovely husband and children and I didn't lose weight to find those things
Kate Winslet
"I hope that in some small way I'm able to say 'I'm a normal person, I'm doing all right, I've got a lovely husband and children and I didn't lose weight to find those things, and those things are what should be important'."
Former Doctor Who star Billie Piper made similiar claims, when she told Glamour magazine: "I think the whole size zero debate is disgusting."
"My sister, who is 13, looks amazing but she's already worried about her figure," said Piper, 24.
"She loves Posh [Victoria Beckham] and I say 'Come on Ellie, she's tiny. What's wrong with Shakira? She's sexy, curvy'. But she has no interest."
She famously hit out at magazine photos that transformed her body into a vision of perfection. But despite her protests Kate Winslet has yet again been the 'victim' of some serious airbrushing.
The Oscar-nominated actress appears on the promotional poster for her latest film showing off luscious skin and flawlessly unlined features.
Airbrushing specialists believe that Miss Winslet has once again posed for a shot which has been technically altered to create an image far removed from the natual reality.
Last year it emerged that a poster image of the actress to advertise the movie 'Romance and Cigarettes' had been tampered with.
And now this promotional photograph, published by Sony Pictures to promote their film 'The Holiday', shows an image drastically different from this unguarded shot of the star at the movie's world premiere this week.
Jason Facey, an airbrushing expert with 25 years experience, said: "We can see in the shot taken of her at the premiere that she has quite pronounced lines and bagging in the delicate under-eye area, which is what you would expect of someone in their early 30s.
"But in the photograph published to advertise her new film, the image has been photoshopped to erase the nose to mouth lines and lessen the crow's feet."
He added: "Interestingly, some of the lines around the eyes have been left in. This is probably so the airbrushing looks as natural as possible.
"The dewy look has been achieved with heavy stage make-up."
Miss Winslet's publicist denied the shots have been tampered with. She said: "There has been absolutely no airbrushing on the stills for the film."
But Jason described how, to meet the movie industry's demands for physical perfection, photography experts will spend time tweaking photographs to create a false image.
He said: "Everyone expects so much that a lot of movie bosses will insist on airbrushing away the slightest flaw.
"This is also because they panic that their real life shots will look out of place when pitted against the competition."
He added: "It has always been done. In Marilyn Monroe's era for example, airbrushing experts would spend hours spraying paint on the images to hide all the lines. Nowadays, the same thing will be done, but on computer with photoshop."
The 31-year-old Titanic star, who is married to director Sam Mendes, was furious when a dramatically altered photograph of her - with thinner legs and a flatter stomach - appeared on the front of GQ in 2003.
"The retouching is excessive," she said. "I do not look like that and I do not desire to look like that."
But the editor Dylan Jones responded: "Various parts have been improved, including her stomach and legs.
"Kate saw them before publication and loved them."
Her latest film 'The Holiday', in cinemas next month, is about two women who swap homes with each other and fall in love with the men they meet.
It also stars Cameron Diaz and Jude Law.
