Reuters
LONDON
Having put on an array of foreign accents in her award-winning career, British actress Kate Winslet says she really wants to play an English character, adding it would be “the ultimate challenge”. The “Titanic” star has pretended to be American, Australian, Polish-Armenian and in her latest film, crime thriller “Triple 9”, a Russian-Israeli mafia boss.
“My M.O. (modus operandi) is just keep doing the unexpected. Although I do also keep trying to play an English person but that just doesn’t keep happening for me at the moment,” Winslet told Reuters in an interview. “That would be the ultimate challenge and then I’d have no dialect coach at all. No one to have my back and I would be all by myself and probably more terrified than ever before. Wouldn’t that be novel?”
Winslet plays the bejewelled and designer-clad Irina Vlaslov in action-packed “Triple 9” about corrupt police and the criminal underworld — a role she said “felt very out of my comfort zone”. “I don’t know anyone like this woman. I didn’t like her. I didn’t empathize with her. I wanted that challenge of playing a character who really felt like a character,” she said. Winslet is in the running for an Academy Award for her portrayal in “Steve Jobs” of the late Apple co-founder’s colleague Joanna Hoffman. She won an Oscar for “The Reader”, an Emmy Award for “Mildred Pierce”, a Best Spoken Word Album For Children Grammy for “Listen to the Storyteller”, meaning she is just missing a Tony Award to complete the “EGOT” acronym of all four major entertainment honours.
Asked if going to Broadway was next, Winslet said: “Well I suppose it probably is now. And that’s more because of my 12-year-old son Joe, who ... is just obsessed with records.” “So since he has learnt about this ‘EGOT’ thing, he’s like, ‘Mum you’ve gotta do it.’” Winslet has backed her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio to win the best actor Oscar this year for “The Revenant”.
Both have been honoured this awards season, reuniting on the red carpet, much to the delight of “Titanic” fans, something that surprised Winslet. “It’s crazy but it’s wonderful how people still get such a kick out of the (“Titanic” characters) Jack and Rose combo.”