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Kate Winslet refused to let 'Mare of Easttown' director edit her belly in sex scene

The actor reinforcing her anti-airbrushing stance.
/ Source: TODAY

Kate Winslet has long been opposed to hiding or retouching what Hollywood deems physical “imperfections” onscreen, and her latest role in “Mare of Easttown” is no exception.

In an interview with The New York Times published Monday, Winslet revealed that when the director of the hit HBO series told her he would cut “a bulgy bit of belly” in a sex scene, she responded, “Don’t you dare!”

The actor, 45, also said that she would not approve the show’s promotional poster until the airbrushing on her face had been removed.

“They were like, ‘Kate, really, you can’t,’ and I’m like, ‘Guys, I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them all back,’” she said.

She added that it was important to her to portray her character, detective Mare Sheehan, as relatable and authentic.

“Listen, I hope that in playing Mare as a middle-aged woman — I will be 46 in October — I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters,” she said. “She’s a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”

Winslet is known for her strong stance against airbrushing. As a model for Lancôme, for example, she included a clause in her contract that banned any additional retouching of her appearance in ads.

Now, of course, in the age of TikTok and Instagram, it’s not just ads and magazines that are doing the retouching; people can easily airbrush themselves, which Winslet said worries her.

“Faces that change, that move, are beautiful faces, but we’ve stopped learning how to love those faces because we keep covering them up with filters now because of social media and anyone can photoshop themselves, and airbrush themselves, and so they do,” she told The New York Times.

“In general, I would say I feel for this generation because I don’t see it stopping, I don’t see or feel it changing,” she added, “and that just makes me sad because I hope that they aren’t missing out on being present in real life and not reaching for unattainable ideals.”

Winslet also opened up to The New York Times about her husband, Ned, who recently changed his surname from “Rocknroll” to “Smith.”

“He’s the superhot, superhuman, stay-at-home dad,” she said. “He looks after us, especially me. I said to him earlier, like, ‘Neddy, could you do something for me?’ He just went, ‘Anything.’”

Winslet and Smith married in 2012 and they share a 7-year-old son, Bear. Winslet also has two children, Mia, 20, and Joe, 17, from her previous marriages.

“He is an absolutely extraordinary life partner,” she said of Smith. “I’m so, so, so lucky. For a man who is severely dyslexic, as he is, he’s great at testing me on lines. It’s so hard for him to read out loud, but he still does it.”