With no less than four features set to hit cinemas over the coming months, Kate Winslet is probably due something of a break away from the camera. And with the political treatise of All The King’s Men, the animated Flushed Away and big-budget rom-com **The **Holiday now in the can/in cinemas, it looks like 2007 will be a fallow screen year for the British actress. Yet before she temporarily hangs up her acting shoes, she took time to lead the introductions at tonight’s LFF gala screening of her latest film – the already Oscar-buzzing suburban melodrama Little Children.
“To be honest, I haven’t been reading the reviews” said the four-time Oscar-nominated actress when asked about the film’s gong possibilities. “All I’ll say is that I’m really excited by the possibility”.
As the unsympathetic, disconnected housewife Sarah, Winslet seems to have been an immediate choice for director Todd Field: “Well, I never think about actors until the script has finished. But, once I do begin to think about who I’d like, I’m desperate to get that actor. So, the only person I had in mind for Sarah was Kate. I’d seen her in Michel Gondry’s film (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) and her performance absolutely floored me”.
As with several of her previous roles, Winslet once again bares more than just her soul on screen: “Well, I didn’t have a party about having to do the love scenes. As an actress, it’s a terrible day in your life and you think ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this I must be absolutely mad and I’m never going to do this again’. But this film is about two people who are lost and lonely,and find each other. The love scenes that they share reveal a great deal about who they are. Still…it doesn’t make it any easier!”
It was then left to Little Children’s director to give his thoughts on this year’s London Film Festival: “It’s a great festival because of the enthusiasm you see from the crowd outside tonight. When I was working here ten years ago, I used to kill time by coming to the festival and watch these films from all over the world and I’m very happy to now be in their company.“