Kate Winslet talks about different standards for male, female performers

Los Angeles, Sep 22 (IANS) Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet, who will be seen playing the renowned photojournalist Lee Miller in the upcoming biopic “Lee”, has spoken about the different standards set for male and female actors.According to deadline.com, Winslet’s comments have included pushing back when a crew member advised her to suck in her stomach to hide her “belly rolls” during a topless scene and subsequently dismissing her reaction being hailed as “bravery.”Winslet went on to speak on the topic in an interview during History Channel’s “History Talks” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Saturday,“I quite like making statements. And actually, I have to say, I’m at the point where I’m just like, You know what? Life is too short,” she said.“But it is one thing that’s been happening to me quite a lot recently, people will say to me, ‘Oh, my God, so you were so brave in this performance, you had no make-up, and you look really kind of crappy.’ And I think, do we say to the men, ‘You were so brave, you grew a beard?’“And then there’s another one, how do you juggle being a mother and having a career?” she added.“Do we say, ‘How do you juggle being a father and having a career?’ I mean, we’ve got to change this dynamic.”

Winslet, there to discuss the making of Lee and Miller’s remarkable story, was one of several Hollywood personalities who participated in History Talks, along with Kevin Costner, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria and John Legend.Last month, Winslet talked about being comfortable in her own skin.The actress refused to be ashamed of looking like the 48-year-old mother-of-two that she is, by a crew member on the set of her new film, about war photographer Lee Miller, reports Mirror.co.uk.She had said: “There’s a bit where Lee is sitting on a bench in a bikini. And one of the crew came up between takes and said, ‘you might want to sit up straighter’. So you can’t see my belly rolls? Not in your life! It was deliberate, you know?”Asked if she minded looking her age on the big screen, she said: “The opposite. I take pride in it because it is my life on my face, and that matters. It wouldn’t occur to me to cover that up.”