Kate Winslet reveals how the paparazzi tormented her after ‘Titanic’: “I was terrified to go to sleep”

Kate Winslet was just 21 years old when she shot to international stardom, playing Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron’s 1997 epic, Titanic. Even though she was relatively established with five feature films already under her belt, it proved to be a pivotal moment in her career.

The English actress wasn’t even the first choice for the role. Claire Danes had turned it down, feeling that she wasn’t ready to take what effectively would be a giant leap into the unknown.

And although Kate was a couple of years older, she found out herself that there is often a high price to pay for fame and fortune. Intrusion, loss of privacy, distorted or fake reporting, derogatory comments about her physical aspect... and that’s just for starters.

Kate Winslet and next level fame

Kate spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Lauren Laverne about the immense, relentless scrutiny she found herself under following Titanic’s success - the movie was the biggest grossing movie of the decade, raking in $2 billion dollars at the box office.

“I didn’t want to be famous, I really didn’t. I know it sounds so daft but it’s not a necessarily easy path to walk and to stay sane and hang on to your sense of self and who you are,” Kate explained on this weekend’s edition of Desert Island Discs.

“My whole world was totally turned upside down through being in Titanic‚” she continued. “I have, of course, so much to be grateful for. And the experience of making the film was incredible. But, I wasn’t ready for that world. I still mentally actually, wasn’t in good shape about my body.

Tabloid press lying in wait, every day

To make matters worse, was the tabloid press hounding her day and night. “You can imagine how appalling it was when the British media started calling me awful, terrible, actually abusive names,” Kate added, describing the lengths they would go to in order to get the dirt on her. “Going into shops and asking shopkeepers what I’d bought, going through my bins to look for my shopping receipts to try and figure out what diet I was on... It was an utter disgrace, and shame on every single one of them. Thank God they don’t do that now. Thank God. Because that was horrible”.

After the euphoria of Titanic, Winslet had thought she would return to her normal life, but it was now a living nightmare. “I just felt like I couldn’t walk down the street, without seeing myself on the cover of The Sun, or the Daily Mail or the News of the World... It was horrific! There were people tapping my phone. They were just everywhere. And I was just on my own. I was terrified to go to sleep. It really was quite scary,” she recalled.

Great neighbors

Having good neighbors always helps and fortunately, there was a couple next door who Kate could rely on just to get through her day-to-day while the press pack lurked outside.

“I had a handful of really wonderful friends,” she concluded. “My neighbors where I lived were named Giorgio [Locatelli] and Plaxy. Plaxy, she just looked after me. She’d ring and she’d say, ‘Babe, they’re out there again. Listen, Giorgio’s just made a lovely pasta and he’s come home with half a bottle of red wine. I’m going to pop some on the garden wall, okay?’ I’d go to the garden wall, I had a little bowl of steaming pasta and a little glass of red wine, and I had someone looking after me. It meant the world to know that someone was there”.

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