Kate Winslet agent used to field calls from Hollywood bosses asking about the actress’ weight.
The 47-year-old ‘Titanic’ star has opened about her early years in the entertainment industry and revealed movie moguls had no scruples about enquiring about her body and it was a question that was often put to her representatives.
In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, she said: “When I was younger, my agent would get calls saying, ‘How’s her weight?'”
The Oscar-winner went on to insist she hopes times have changed because she has very different priorities now. She added: “As a middle-aged woman, I care about being that actor who moves their face and has a body that jiggles.”
Kate also opened up about how social media has changed life for anyone in the public eye – insisting the internet puts unnecessary pressure on young actors as they are unable to move on from their mistakes.
She explained: “It was hard enough [for me] having the flipping [defunct UK tabloid] News of the World on my doorstep, but that doesn’t even cut it now.
“That phrase about ‘today’s news being tomorrow’s fish and chip paper’ doesn’t exist. The thing you did when you were drunk or foolish? It may come back to haunt you. Needing to be on one’s guard for young actors is just a different thing. It must be extraordinarily hard.”
It comes after Kate revealed she donated £17,000 to a family struggling with soaring energy bills for their daughter’s life support machines.
The actress was moved by the story of Carolynne Hunter whose 13-year-old daughter Freya has severe cerebral palsy and needs to be given oxygen for her chronic breathing problems.
Carolynne was warned her energy bills could soar into the thousands as fuel prices spike so Kate stepped in and helped out.
Speaking on the BBC’s ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg’ show, she explained: “Something popped up on the BBC Scotland news page about this woman, Carolynne Hunter’s story.
“And her saying that she would have to put her child, who has severe cerebral palsy and very, very extreme needs and is non-verbal, that she was going to have to put her child into care because she could not afford her electricity bills.
“And it absolutely destroyed me. I just thought on what planet is anyone going to let that happen, this is completely, completely wrong.”
