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Okay, look. Here's the thing about that Kate Winslet/Rachel Weisz 2 Stars 1 Slot I wrote back in 2003: I gave the advantage to Weisz, and I was wrong. But let me explain my reasoning. No, wait -- hear me out! At the time, Weisz was on the rise, coming off About A Boy and starring in a Revlon ad campaign. And Kate Winslet? Was in The Life of David Gale. Winslet was in a fallow period! I didn't know what 2004 would bring! I'M SORRY!
Comparing Weisz and Winslet now demonstrates how very wrong I was: Winslet is in the midst of Oscar hoopla surrounding her fourth nomination. And Weisz has been reunited with her Chain Reaction co-star Keanu Reeves in Constantine, which, more like Crapstantine. "Hell wants him"? Hell's the only one.
But our subject today, Ms. Winslet, is just awesome. We love her in much the same way, and for much the same reason, that we love her Sense & Sensibility co-star Emma Thompson: she's a natural actor and a really cool person.
It's difficult for an actor to stay in our favour much longer than six months, what with the way incredibly heavy press coverage accelerates the life cycle of stardom. But with her canny combination of normal, out-of-the-spotlight living and mostly good movies, Winslet has been one of our most beloved actors ever since Heavenly Creatures, more than ten years ago. And there are so many intersections on the path of her fame where she could have taken a wrong turn, becoming the kind of star we'd have no choice but to hate; fortunately, Winslet missed the turnoff to Claire Danesville.
Winslet has played opposite some really hot actors -- Christopher Eccleston, Greg Wise, Johnny Depp; and, if you're into that sort of thing, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Carrey, and Joaquin Phoenix. She could have started dating any of them, guaranteeing herself a ton of publicity and/or, in some cases, breaking up their pre-existing relationships. Unlike the aforementioned Claire "Homewrecker" Danes, she did not.
Winslet has played opposite and been directed by Thompson's ex, Kenneth Branagh. She could have started a relationship with him, even though he's a lot older than she and has, since the '90s, turned into kind of a Michael Douglas-y skeeve. Unlike her fellow Thompson co-star/Branagh on-screen love-interest-directee Helena Bonham Carter, she did not.
Winslet has appeared in a plenitude of costume dramas. She could have reacted to her potential typecasting by playing the same messed-up skank in Fight Club and Novocaine. Unlike Bonham Carter (again), she did not.
Winslet had a life-changing, Oscar-nominated role in a Best Picture-winning film. She could have followed it up with like twenty really annoying movies (and one good one) in a row, and also started giving extremely pretentious interviews about what a style icon she is and how all her ex-boyfriends are beneath her and how her restricted diet makes her interesting and deep, and how she invented long hair and Pilates. Unlike Gwyneth Paltrow, she did not.
So that's what Winslet didn't do. Instead, she had a baby with a non-famous person (Jim Threapleton) and then another one with a (relatively) famous director (Sam Mendes); we don't love that choice, frankly, but look up -- it could have been a lot worse. She continued making period films, most of which were pretty good, and when the time came for her to play a contemporary woman who happened to be somewhat eccentric (blue hair, y'all!), it was in a great movie (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), her character had a reason for dressing and acting the way she did beyond just being a cinematic symbol of freakiness, and she got a well-deserved Oscar nomination out of it. She never held herself up as an icon of anything, really, and is unfailingly lovable and charming in interviews -- which you might not think of as a talent, especially, until you consider how few of her colleagues possess it. Someone should get Winslet to teach a class in it at the Learning Annex.
But then, who knows how many of the things Winslet's done right are the result of consideration and planning? Would she look back on the past decade of her life and remember what made her decide to name her first-born child Mia instead of Apple? Or is her position as a cool, likable celebrity the natural result of her being a cool, likable person?
SNL hosting gigs and EW covers aside, we don't think Kate Winslet seeks or especially cares about fame. She seems to work as much as she cares to and, David Gale aside, in movies that challenge her and are a pleasure to watch her in; she's not trying to launch a fragrance or a concert tour. So we don't wish her more fame of the sort that gets pages in Us Weekly, because we don't want to start hating her. However, we do wish her more fame of the sort that gets more people to seek out her films and appreciate her performances in them: Constantine will probably make as much in its first weekend as Eternal Sunshine will between now and the end of time, and that's just wrong.
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