Wah Wari: The Thing About Kate (Winslet)

Let me just throw this out before we dive into anything else. I'm not a fan of Kate or her work. I don't find excitingly sexy. I don't find her to be drop-dead gorgeous. She won't cause my tongue to hang out of my mouth. Of her movies that I've seen, I don't find them a great work of art. There, I've said; it's out there; let the stoning begin if you must.

But, having said all those things let me go on to say this. You see, despite all of the above, there is just something about Kate Winslet that attracts my attention. What is that something? Let me see if I can explain it.

The thing about Kate Winslet is that she is absolutely refreshing; she really is. There could be no other day that I blog about her than on a Monday. After the weekend is done and you're not really looking forward to another work day; to the start of the work week; yes that is the time to call on Kate.

Kate is sure to make your Monday much more bearable. She's got this calming effect on me and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one. She's like a breath of fresh air blowing through the room on a peaceful and quiet afternoon.

Although I don't find her to be drop-dead gorgeous, there is no denying that she is a gorgeous woman. She is certainly pleasing to the eyes. I would describe her as delicious and sumptuous; she's like your favorite scoop of ice cream. You want to take your time and enjoy every spoonful and you don't want it to end. You just want to savor her presence and beauty.

Kate is another of those women who never obsess about having to be this thin in order to please everyone in movie land. In fact, she has been very outspoken about the weight issue having being overweight as a child. And although I am not a fan of her movies, it does not mean that this British beauty is not a truly brilliant and super talented actress. This is beyond question especially since she has broken as well as set a number of records throughout her career thus far.

Me not being a fan of her or any other actress's movies does not automatically equal lack of talent or bad movies. The only thing it equals is that I am just not a fan of the movie(s) plain and simple; that's all there is to it. I'm just not a movie person. Give me music or I'll be very unhappy.

Since beginning her career in 1991, if there is one thing that can be said of Winslet, it is that she has made it a point to play extremely diverse roles. These roles include that of a prisoner/murderer (Heavenly Creatures), being penniless and heartbroken (Sense and Sensibility), a damsel in distress/almost drowning (Titanic) and being clueless after having her memory erased (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Her films span the scope of family, drama, fantasy, science fiction, romance, crime, thriller, comedy, adventure and animation. She has won 25 awards and has had 49 nominations so far in her career.

But you don't have to take my word for it regarding Kate's accomplishments. Throughout her career she has been breaking but more impressively setting records. The following is taken directly from wikipedia:

Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated, seven-time Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-nominated, BAFTA, Grammy and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning English actress.

She is noted for having played a wide range of diverse characters over her career, but is probably best-known for her critically acclaimed performances as Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures (1994), Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995), Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997), Iris Murdoch in Iris (2001), Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Sarah Pierce in Little Children (2006).

At the age of 22, she broke the record for the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, and each of her subsequent nominations has broken a further record: the youngest person to receive three, four, and five nominations. She is a serious contender for two Oscars this year, leading for Revolutionary Road and supporting for The Reader, a wartime Holocaust drama based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink (Both of which she has received a Golden Globe nomination for). If she receives two 2009 nominations, she will set another record: the youngest person to receive seven Oscar nominations.

Kate is well known for turning down major films for more low-budget independent films. She's also famous for playing roles of merit; roles that require her to push her limits; roles that portray women who are gutsy and ballsy.

Another thing that I like about Winslet is that she is sophisticated in a non-pretentious way. It's almost as if she's unaware of how cultivated and cultured she is. She is so smooth and blasé yet down-to-earth.

Add all of the above with the fact that this woman is self-confident, self-assured, smart, ultra sexy and intelligent and you've got the total package. I will close with some personal quotes to further solidify some of the reasons why I admire Winslet.

After Titanic it would have been completely foolish for me to go and try and top that. I'm an English girl, I've always loved England, I've never felt the desire to leave it for any particular reason. And whilst I'm ambitious and care very much about what I do, I'm not competitive. I also don't want to act every day of my life. ... So it was important to me after Titanic to just remind myself of why it was that I was acting in the first place, which is of course because I love it.

People say to me, 'You seem to have made this conscious decision to do independent films'. In reality, I haven't. After each movie, I always think, how different can I possibly be?... Is this going to challenge me, is this going to inspire me, and is this going to make me love my job more than I already do?

I was a wayward child, very passionate and very determined. If I made up my mind to do something, there was no stopping me.

It seems daft that I'm famous and I've not really got to grips with that.

If you're not still learning and growing as an actor, then you have no backbone and no career.

My skin still crawls if you call me a movie star. I get embarrassed. I think, don't be ridiculous. Maybe it's because I'm British. To me, Julia Roberts that's a movie star. But when people do call me one, that, I think, is an enormous compliment but my God, is that a responsibility!