Actress Kate Winslet has honestly opened up about the way she was bullied as a child and how she used this as fuel for her determination to succeed. The star of the recently released Netflix movie “Goodbye June” was bravely candid about the bullying she experienced and the effects that it had on her as a child and young adult.
Kate Winslet Reveals How Childhood Bullying Spurred Her On
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” (via Deadline), Winslet explained that when she was younger and first starting out as an actor. She described herself as a “little bit stocky” and this was picked up on by one her drama teachers
Winslet said, “When I did start taking it much more seriously and got a child agent, I really remember vividly a drama teacher … and she said to me, ‘Well, darling, you’ll have a career if you’re ready to settle for the fat girl parts.'”
“Look at me now,” said Winslet. “That wasn’t very nice, was it? It’s appalling the things people say to children.”
“I had a lot of kids tease me at primary school,” she added. “They would call me blubber. I wasn’t even overweight. I just had stocky thighs, and they would lock me in the art cupboard, and they would say, ‘Blubber’s blubbing in the art cupboard’ and things like that.'”
The Academy Award-winning actress said this and similar comments had a negative effect on her, leading to unhealthy eating habits that stayed with her throughout her late teens. However, she went on to explain how she was eventually able to overcome the problem and used the hurtful comments to provide a sense of determination that she would succeed.
Kate Winslet Reveals Some of Her Earliest Intimate Moments Were With Other Women
During a different interview, Winslet made an intimate admission when she told the hosts of a podcast that some of her first kisses were with other women.
“I’ll share something I’ve never shared before,” she said. “Some of my first intimate experiences as a young teen were actually with girls.”
She continued, “I’d kissed a few girls, and I’d kissed a few boys, but I wasn’t particularly evolved in either direction.”
“At that stage in my life, I certainly was curious, and I think there was something about the really intense connection that those two women had that I profoundly understood,” Winslet said while discussing the film “Heavenly Creatures” on the podcast. “I was so immediately sucked into the vortex of that world they were in that obviously became horrendously damaging to both of them, and they had huge insecurities and vulnerabilities.”
