Kate Winslet remembers being called “fat” on Titanic

Not everyone wanted to draw her like one of her French girls.

In a recent podcast interview, Kate Winslet, 47, revealed that she was called “fat” during the debate over whether both Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Winslet) could fit on that door in Titanic. Winslet said the comments she heard in the media when the film came out in 1997 were “bullying” and “borderline offensive.”

The hit film ended with a lurid finale, with Rose surviving on the floating door while her lover Jack froze to death in the water. Later, Winslet heard some takes about why they both couldn’t fit on that door: “Apparently I was too fat. Isn’t it terrible? Why were they so mean to me? You were so mean. I wasn’t even damn fat.”

The Oscar winner made these comments on the Happy Sad Confused podcast ahead of the film’s 25th anniversary. During this interview, she also finally got involved in the famous door debate.

“I have to be honest: I actually don’t think we would have survived if we both walked through that door,” she said. “I think he would have fit, but it would have tipped and it would not have been a sustainable idea.”

She has some regrets about how she handled the argument that she was “too fat” at the time, she said.

“If I could turn back the clock, I would have used my voice very differently. … I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like that. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m finding out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m scared, don’t make it any harder than it already is.” That’s bullying, you know, and it’s actually borderline abusive, I would say.”