Winners’ Press Conference interview with Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) for Supporting Actress
KATE WINSLET: Thank you very much. Can't I hide behind a podium?
Q. I can move it across.
KATE WINSLET: No, that's okay. Can you hear me? Yes you can.
Q. Congratulations, Kate. Third time round, third BAFTA, how does it feel? Does it get easier?
KATE WINSLET: No, as you can tell, clearly not. No, it doesn't get any easier at all. That's feedback, is that me or you? It doesn't get any easier and I think I'm even more excited than I was when I was in this position 20 years ago for Sense and Sensibility, as someone kindly reminded me on the red carpet actually. It was like, oh, my God I'm really that old. No, it's incredible, it's just fantastic. It really has been an extraordinary year for female performances and just to be included, you know, this category, people have been floating sort of in and out of it through the various different award ceremonies. The Critics Award that happened behind the scenes, that's a whole other ball game as well and people have been floating in and out of the category in those awards too so to have stayed in the category felt great so this feels really, really great.
Q. Let's take you back to the beginning. A script called Steve Jobs, written by Aaron Sorkin lands on your desk, let's say you haven't already said yes. At what point while reading the script did you say yes, I'm in.
KATE WINSLET: It didn't land on my desk. I had to make those fuckers send it to me. I had to absolutely go after it. I heard about the film through Ivana Primorac who is a hair and make-up designer who I have worked with several times over the years but she was working on The Dressmaker, that I was working on at the time, and she was very excited because she had been asked by Danny Boyle if she would do hair and make-up for the Steve Jobs film that he was about to direct with Michael Fassbender. So I go into the hair and make-up trailer every morning for a week or so in Australia and I'm hearing about the latest instalment on her job that she's very much doing and then after about four or five days of the back and forth negotiations with her job, I say, what's the girl's part. And she says, oh, hang on, oh, hang on, and then we both whipped ourselves up into a complete frenzy and made it a mission to get them to send me the script and they wouldn't send it to me. So I thought, okay, I need to nudge somebody here, this is really irritating. So I found a picture of Joanna Hoffman online and I decided to make myself look as much like her as I possibly could so my husband went to a wig shop and bought a short dark-haired wig and I put on a pair of glasses and took a selfie and sent it to the right direction and they sent me a script. Then Danny came to Melbourne and we had a meeting and he asked me to play the part and that's how that happened. Thank you, that would look bad on TV. Thank you very much. You're very kind, young man.
Q. Hi, Kate, congratulations. We spoke about it earlier on the red carpet, you accept those awards with such candour, you never expect it, does it make you be more grateful and enjoy it even more because you don't expect it?
KATE WINSLET: I'm just still so grateful to be doing this job. I really am, I've been doing it since I was 15 and I still love it as much as I did then and actually probably even more because I know how hard it is to pull it off and juggle everything with life and work and so it really does mean so much to me and whenever I do go to work it's very much a family effort and a family affair and I'm lucky to have that support network at home that makes it possible. So it honestly means more than ever to me, it really does.
Q. Do you feel more pressured to write an Oscar speech now that you've won a BAFTA?
KATE WINSLET: Oh, my God, do you have to even ask me that question. I keep not preparing them at all. I'm so convinced I'm not winning any of these things. It's completely overwhelming, I've still no idea what I actually just said. Did I say anything that made any sense? He's shaking his head, that's mean. You're only doing that because you've known me for years. Oh, you couldn't hear it.
Q. Apparently you had 45 seconds to get your Oscar speech down to this year?
KATE WINSLET: Oh, is that right? Oh, gosh.
Q. Are you thinking about how you might do that?
KATE WINSLET: No. Not remotely. Not remotely. I daren't think about it because then I'll get nervous. No, I didn't know that. That's alarming, oh, well, talk fast, I don't know.
Q. Can I just ask, what will you tell your children about tonight? Are any of them still up? Do they know you've won?
KATE WINSLET: They will still be up and they probably won't know just yet actually, no. I'm very happy to finish talking to you fine people and go and phone my children and they'll be extremely excited, I know they will.
Q. Hi, can you believe after all these years you can still cause so much fuss talking about that door on Titanic?
KATE WINSLET: Oh, no. Do you know what's lovely though? So much time has passed that it doesn't matter what I say now. It's not going to be a story that's going to cause a huge furore, it's just going to be something that makes people laugh. Thank God for time and the passing of it. That's all I can say.
Q. Have you seen Leo tonight?
KATE WINSLET: Yes, very much so.
Q. Every time you see him does he go is there a space for me on that door?
KATE WINSLET: No, funnily enough, he doesn't. He doesn't care about the door.
Q. That's a bombshell.
Q. Do you wish to dedicate this trophy to someone?
KATE WINSLET: Do you know, you know, I often, in a moment like that one, I find myself afterwards thinking, oh, I should have said something, I should have... when I was younger, when I was only 14, I was told by a drama teacher that I might do okay if I was happy to settle for the fat girl parts. Look at me now. Look at me now. And so what I feel like saying in those moments is, any young woman who has ever been put down by a teacher or a friend or even a parent, just don't listen to any of it because that's what I did. I didn't listen and I kept on going and I overcame all of my fears and I got over a lot of insecurity and just keep doing it and keep believing in yourself. That's what I felt like I really had to dig deep and do. And so I would dedicate it to all those young women who doubt themselves because you shouldn't be doubting. You should just be going for it.
Q. Absolutely. I'm going to ask one last thing. Where are you going to keep this BAFTA? Is it going next to the others?
KATE WINSLET: I haven't even thought about that. I haven't even thought about that. My children will probably want to take it in turns having it in their bedrooms I would have thought.
Q. Fantastic. On that note, give it up for Kate Winslet.
KATE WINSLET: Thank you. Thank you very much.
