At age 16, Winslet was cast in the
British sci-fi series Dark Season. Her first big break came
at age 18 with the role as an obsessive adolescent in Heavenly
Creatures- a film based on the true story of two fantasy-gripped
girls who commit a brutal murder. With this role, critics began to
stand up and take notice.
The following year, Kate Winslet
auditioned for a role in Sense and Sensibility. The film’s
star Emma Thompson was immediately impressed and Kate won the role,
beating out more than a hundred others for the part of Marion
Dashwood. Her portrayal won her a British Academy Award and her
first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
From there, Winslet went on to perform in such films as Jude
(1996) and Hamlet (1996).
International stardom came with the
role of Rose Dewitt Bukater in 1997s blockbuster Titanic.
Audiences the world over fell in love with actress and the role
earned Kate Winslet another Academy nomination for Best Actress,
thus making her the youngest actress to ever receive two Academy
nominations.
After the unexpected attention she
received from Titanic, Winslet retreated to the less
conspicuous roles of independent artsy- films and doing voice work
for animation including Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001)
where her song “What If?” was released as a single in the UK (the
song made it to the top of the charts in Ireland).
After filming Holy Smoke and
Quills (both 2000), Winslet married assistant director Jim
Threapleton and had a baby girl- Mia Honey. A year later, they were
divorced. In 2003, Winslet met her current husband, director Sam
Mendes, and in December of that year, their son Joe Alfie was born.
They presently live in a 14th –century manor in the
English countryside.
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