Summary

• Winslet's career is defined by taking on challenging and interesting roles that showcase her intense commitment and powerful onscreen charisma.
• From her debut in Heavenly Creatures to her Oscar-winning performance in The Reader, Winslet consistently impresses with her talent and dedication.
• While she may be best known for Titanic, Winslet's diverse filmography proves her range and ability to excel in a variety of genres and roles.

The extraordinary career of Kate Winslet has included countless acclaimed roles over the past 30 years. As an Academy Award-winning actor who has excelled across many genres, including roles in comedies, period dramas, and romantic science fiction, Winslet’s intense commitment and powerful onscreen charisma have solidified her reputation as among the best performers of her generation. From her acclaimed acting debut in 1994 right up until today, Winslet has consistently sought challenging, experimental, and interesting movies that have defined her unmatched career.

While many viewers may immediately associate Winslet with Rose from Titanic, this was far from her only achievement, as in Winslet's best movies, she’s played lovestruck teenagers in period dramas like Sense and Sensibility or even a complex war criminal with her Oscar-winning performance in The Reader. The story of Winslet’s career was one of always pushing the boundaries, and with more than 50 movie roles to her name, she has earned her reputation as one of the greatest actors working today.

8 Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Kate Winslet as Juliet Hulme

Kate Winslet’s extraordinary talent was on display right from the start, as her powerful performance as Juliet Hulme in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures immediately pointed to her as a performer to watch out for. Based on the notorious true story of the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand, Heavenly Creatures was a shocking story of fantasy, friendship, and obsession. Winslet played a teenage girl who developed an unhealthy obsession with her best friend Pauline, which tragically led to the murder of Pauline’s mother.

A dark, captivating, and intensely stylish movie, Heavenly Creatures showcased the darkest sides of teenage fantasies as two young girls fell ever further into an unhealthy fascination with one another. At 19 years old, Winslet’s intense performance impressed Jackson so much that she gained the part among 175 women who auditioned for it (via Sibley.) While this powerful performance kicked off Winslet’s career with a bang, this was only the beginning, as she brought the same ionate acting skill to all her subsequent roles.

7 Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood

As a heartbreaking exploration of the agony of unrequited love, director Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility stood as the very best Jane Austen adaptation of the classic 1811 novel of the same name. Kate Winslet played Marianne Dashwood, the 16-year-old daughter who embodied the sensibility that contrasted her sister Elinor’s (Emma Thompson) sense. Winslet’s portrayal of Marianne was so effective that, in her second feature film role ever, Winslet secured an Academy Award nomination for Best ing Actress.

While Sense and Sensibility boasted an incredible ensemble cast, Winslet’s performance stood out among the rest as she captured the betrayed vulnerability of her character in a heartfelt portrayal that did its classic source material justice. Winslet was just 20 years old when she starred in Sense and Sensibility, but she had already made a name for herself as one of the most exciting young actresses in the entire industry. It’s no surprise that after her performance as Marianne, Winslet began to catch the attention of some of the biggest filmmakers in Hollywood.

6 Titanic (1997)

Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater

With 11 Academy Award wins, Titanic has remained among the films with the most Oscar wins ever, tying with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

It’s difficult to overstate the incredible appeal of James Cameron’s Titanic, a visual spectacle that saw unprecedented success with audiences, critics, and at the box office. With two fantastic lead performances by Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Titanic propelled the two performers to international superstardom as they became the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. With 11 Academy Award wins, Titanic has remained among the films with the most Oscar wins ever, tying with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The success of Titanic was owed in no small part to Winslet’s incredible performance, as her timeless beauty and unmatched charisma made the love story of Rose and Jack wholly believable. While Winslet’s performance didn’t win her an Oscar, it still stood as among the most important entries in her entire career and was a part with which she would be forever associated. Winslet’s leading role in Titanic solidified her place in movie history and opened her up to more interesting and challenging roles moving forward.

5 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski

Kate Winslet delivered one of her best performances as Clementine Kruczynski in Michel Gondry's unforgettable psychological drama, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With Jim Carrey in the lead role of Joel Barish, Winslet played his spontaneous extroverted girlfriend, who underwent a procedure to forget about him entirely, and in the midst of his heartache, Joel chose to do the same. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind then took viewers on a journey through Joel’s memories, as Winslet needed to simultaneously play Clementine as a real person and as Joel’s imagined memory of her.

Through a non-linear narrative and with elements of science fiction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a powerful story about breaking up and the importance of grieving the end of a relationship naturally. While the timeline of Joel and Clementine’s relationship may be confusing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was based more on feelings and emotion than presenting a straightforward narrative. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a defining moment in Winslet’s career as it showcased her willingness to take on more experimental roles and stand outside the expected conventions of a Hollywood star.

4 The Holiday (2006)

Kate Winslet as Iris Simpkins

After having already proven herself a dramatic actor of exceptional skill, Kate Winslet showcased her equally impressive talent at playing more comedic roles in the Christmas rom-com The Holiday. With a fantastic ensemble cast that included Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black, Winslet played a heartbroken London writer who traded houses with a girl from Los Angeles to get away from it all for two weeks. In a tender love story, Winslet fell for Miles Dumont (Black), a Hollywood film composer who stood in stark contrast to the typical rom-com leading man.

While The Holiday was a mostly predictable foray into classic rom-com clichés and tropes, it did so with such love and humor that it was easy to forgive its faults. The Holiday was a defining film in the career of Winslet because she showcased a different side to herself where, after already proving herself as a major talent, she could afford to take on lighter roles and broad entertainment parts. Since the release of The Holiday, Winslet has found a perfect balance between taking on intensely prestigious acting roles and more laid-back comedic parts.

3 The Reader (2008)

Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz

Kate Winslet was no stranger to intense performances, but her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz in The Reader was on another level. Based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink, The Reader told the story of an illiterate German woman who became embroiled in a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, after which her dark past as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp was unveiled and she was put on trial for war crimes. Schmitz's illiteracy acted as a powerful metaphor for a generation who were illiterate toward their actions in the Holocaust and stood as Winslet’s most powerful role to date.

The Reader was an incredibly important moment in Winslet’s career, as, after six Academy Award nominations, she finally took home the Oscar for Best Actress.

The Reader was an incredibly important moment in Winslet’s career, as, after six Academy Award nominations, she finally took home the Oscar for Best Actress. Winslet brought a chilling detachment to her role as Schmitz, which hinted at the troubled darkness behind her story. While The Reader could be criticized for humanizing the perpetrators of the Holocaust, it remained an extraordinary portrayal of the hidden horrors that those who committed unspeakable acts had to live with.

2 Steve Jobs (2015)

Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman

Most of the defining movies in the career of Kate Winslet cast her as the lead, but she was often just as effective in ing roles where she contributed depth and intrigue to the main character’s journey. No movie better encapsulated this characteristic than Winslet’s portrayal of Joanna Hoffman, the Apple co-creator’s closest confidant in Steve Jobs. Winslet gave a spectacular performance opposite Michael Fassbender as Jobs and proved she didn’t need to take center stage to give an extraordinary performance.

Winslet received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Joanna Hoffman, where she fully inhabited the real-life Apple executive and perfectly mimicked her mannerisms and personality, right down to her distinctive Polish accent. Hoffman was one of the few people who could stand up to Jobs and honestly voice her concerns. Because of this, Winslet acted as an important counterbalance to all the yes men he was surrounded by. Steve Jobs was a fascinating character study of an interesting man, and Winslet helped ground his story with a genuine connection.

1 Ammonite (2020)

Kate Winslet as Mary Anning

After 15 years since Kate Winslet gave one of the best period drama performances of all time in Sense and Sensibility, she returned to the genre she was known for as the real British paleontologist Mary Anning in the romantic period drama Ammonite. However, rather than play a lovestruck teenager, the tables had turned, and Winslet now played the older love interest in an LGBTQ+ story about two women who formed an intense connection. With Saoirse Ronan as the melancholic apprentice Charlotte Murchison, Ammonite was a story of unspeakable love during the stifling Victorian era.

The success of Ammonite rested on the incredible chemistry between Winslet and Ronan, whose heartfelt longing and quiet comion towards one another made this subtly effective period drama. Ammonite allowed for moments of silence as, even in scenes with no dialogue, Winslet was able to capture a world of emotion with a simple look or expression. Ammonite proved that there was nobody who could do a period drama better than her, and after an incredibly varied and fascinating career, Kate Winslet had not lost any of her eternal star power.

Source: Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey by Brian Sibley