Kate Winslet's winning ways

Feb 5 2009 By Mike Davies

understanding what’s happening to her and her inability to articulate how she’s feeling. When she looks at the judge and says ‘what would you have done?’, I felt she’s was also asking that question of herself for the first time. That was a big turning point for me.”

She cites Daldry’s analogy to explain Hanna’s actions.

“‘Why did you put the babies in the washing machine?’ ‘The babies had to be washed.’ ‘But didn’t you know that the babies would die if you put them in the washing machine?’ ‘But the babies had to be washed’.

“When you put it in simple, horrific terms like that, I understood it on a really uncomfortable level, but it did make a lot more sense,” she says quietly. “One struggles with whether you’re supposed to feel sympathy for this woman, but I had to allow myself to feel it for that one split second to understand what the hell was going on in her mind, that she just thought she was doing her job. It’s wildly uncomfortable to play those types of things.”

According to Winslet, it wasn’t exactly easy for the German crew to watch either.

“We shot the trial sequence in the middle of the film and I’d look at them sitting there shaking their heads, just so ashamed to be German, and so overwhelmed by realising, depending on their age, how much or how little they knew. David Kross (who plays Hanna’s teenage lover) had been taught about the Holocaust as school, but learned so much more as a result of this film. He’d say, ‘I can’t believe what happened. I hate it that I’m German’.”

Some difficult plot moments about motherhood aside, Revolutionary Road may have been slightly less uncomfortable but, directed by her husband, no less challenging an experience.

“The comfort zone factor kicked in between Leo and I because we’ve known each other since we were 20-year-olds,” she smiles. “I’m 33 now and he’s 34, so to have that level of friendship and trust between us was really valuable. We felt physically comfortable playing those parts, and we also had to look after each other a lot because it was extremely difficult some days.”

“With Sam, because I didn’t know what he was going to be like as a director, there was always the element of the unknown. But he made all the actors feel included and understood, that their ideas about their characters were sometimes more important than his own. As an actor, that gives you a great sense of confidence to try anything and make mistakes but not be afraid to repair those mistakes and try something new.

“But there was a kind of a pressure too though and you sort of think ‘Oh Christ, I have to just let go of the expectation and just play the part and try be as truthful about who I feel April is as I possibly can be’. There’s was a certain amount of flying by the seat of your pants, but, having never worked together before, I did get to see other sides to Sam and it’s a great thing to learn more about the person that you’re sharing your life with. We walked away as a couple unscathed. We survived it.”

Which, without giving anything away, is more than can be said for either Hanna or April.

“That was really difficult for me,” Winslet admits. “More so in case of April because, yes, she was suicidal, but I don’t think she planned on killing herself. She just knew the risk was so great. For me, the idea of leaving the children behind was really horrible, and it makes you cry a lot.

“With Hanna, again there was the sense of ending a really dreadful life. This was a woman who had been victim in many ways, so it was very difficult to play those two things simultaneously. I found allowing myself to sympathise with her very hard, and not to be able to do that was a new experience to me. So these were pretty dark places to have to go to, but at the same time they were the most rewarding experiences of my life as an actor. I’ve taken away a hell of a lot and I’ll never forget playing these unbelievable women.”

Chances are audiences won’t, either.