“Don’t you dare”
For some, the art of growing older is relished and celebrated as it should be. But for others, the need to hide signs of ageing has never been so poignant in the digital age. For Hollywood actress Kate Winslet, who you might remember from leaving jack to freeze in the ocean, it has never been more critical to show accurate representations of womanhood.
HBO’s series Mare of Easttown, in which Winslet plays a detective in Pennsylvania, has received critical acclaim and praise for its ‘explosive finale’.
Director Craig Zobel offered to edit a sex scene in which Winslet showed “a bulgy bit of belly.” Though Zobel offered to depict her in a “more flattering” light, Winslet promptly replied with: “don’t you dare.”
Winslet also reports to The New York Times that she returned the promotional poster twice as it was highly edited.
The Heavenly Creatures star, who will be 46 later this year, was keen to portray the titular character with ‘no filters’ and hoped this would resonate with the audience, which it did.
“She’s a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”
Reiterating how audiences are “starving” for correct depictions of women, Winslet was steadfast in portraying the character in the most authentic way possible.
Winslet joins an army of women, all seeking better representations of their bodies and the way the audience inevitably views them. Back in January, Kiera Knightly spoke about the same issues on the Channel Connects podcast.
“I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men,” says Knightly. Though Winslet and Knightly’s situations are entirely different, they still operate in the realm of the male gaze, but specifically how women’s bodies are viewed on-screen.
Whether pop culture affects society or vice versa is beside the point. Cinema is often a reflection of what we can already see around us, which is precisely why Mare of Easttown has done spectacularly well. People resonate with a raw depiction of womanhood, so here’s to hoping more directors take note.
