Kate Winslet on strong women and learning lines

Beattie: Hi, this is Beattie on the Get Into Film channel and I’m very excited today because I had my first assignment. I was hanging out with Aaron Sorkin and I had an absolute blast with Kate Winslet. I think she really liked me. They’re in town to talk about their new film, Steve Jobs, which, funnily enough, is about Steve Jobs, who you’ll know as he made all of the i products like the iPad, the iPhone, the iMac and I really liked it. The film was really captivating and there was just so much to get your head around. I honestly cannot imagine being an actor and getting that script for the first time.

Kate: Well, it was a very different experience for all of us working on a film like this one where there are so many words because as an actor, you know, you learn your lines and that’s just a given, it’s a basic thing, everyone has to do it, you know, you try not to make mistakes on the day but with dialogue like this because there is so much of it, the concentration that we all had to have, just in that process of really getting the dialogue down was huge. It’s 187 pages and Michael Fassbender is on every single page, and so for him, it was like Hamlet times two, it was so hard!

Beattie: You talk about 187 pages. I’ve got three cards here and I’m a bit worried! I’ve been in a few productions myself. I can’t imagine learning the lines for this one. How did you do that?

Kate: We were lucky because we had a lot of rehearsals, so we were able to repeat it, repeat it over and over again for kind of nine, ten days straight before we actually went on set and had to start filming it so by the time we got onto set, in theatre terms we were on performance 100 as opposed to like, you know, the opening night where we would all have been kind of like, terrified and you know, making mistakes every three minutes.

Beattie: Rehearsals sound like they were quite a process, but I was wondering, you know, what was it like when they finally got onto set?

Kate: We really didn’t make that many mistakes. We just we all knew it so well. Because if you make a mistake, you’re throwing everybody else as well.

Beattie: That must have been such a relief. I can’t imagine messing up one of those really long takes and having to start from the beginning again. I really admired that Kate played a really strong female character in the movie, and I was wondering if that was something that drew her to the role.

Kate: It is something that drew me to the role because I think that I like it on film when you see a woman and man, and the man needs the woman more than she needs him. That’s cool.

Beattie: It’s always good to be needed but I wondered what Steve Jobs got out of his relationship with Joanna Hoffman.

Kate: The things that Steve would ask her to do on his behalf she was like ‘urgh’. She just got kind of, you know, like sick of his crazy little ways. He would even have her sometimes write poems for a girlfriend that he might have, I mean he was pretty outrageous.

Beattie: Steve was really strongly influenced by art in the film, almost as much as technology, but I was wondering, how much has the art of film-making been influenced by technology?

Kate: It’s made a huge difference and I want you to know that you’re the first journalist who has asked that question and who has identified the fact that art has a huge influence in Steve’s life, so well done. Honestly, and I’ve done ... I’m not just talking about today. I’ve done like two weeks’ worth of interviews …

Beattie: Kate Winslet just complimented me! THAT Kate Winslet from Titanic, that one!

Kate: I think it’s played a huge part, I mean things are very different now. The first film I made when I was seventeen years old, which is twenty-three years ago, erm… there’s a lot of digital effects in that film and they’re terrible, you know, I look at them now, I’m like ‘oh my god’, it all looks so clunky and weird … even Titanic, some of those effects then that were pioneering at the time, you know, they look a bit clunky now, you know. Erm ...  and so yes, I mean yes, we really do live in the most heightened digital age I think ever, and technology has played, my goodness me, a huge, huge part, erm, in how films are made.

Beattie: This acting’s a funny old game. Steve seems pretty uncompromising in his life and career, and I was wondering if, as an actor, there’s anything that you never want to compromise on.

Kate: How I instinctively want to play a part, you know, erm, because at the end of the day, sometimes, when the chips are down, all you have is your instincts and even if you’re the one who’s made the wrong choice, later on, at least in the moment, I would know that I had the strength of my own convictions to say, mm, no, I want to play it that way, and for me, I just never want to look back and wish I’d done it a different way. So, that’s one thing I try not to compromise on.

Beattie: Well, there you go. How did she think I did on my first interview? Kate?

Kate: That was brilliant. You’ve done it!

Beattie: I’m so proud of myself!

Beattie: It was actually such a good film. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you guys go and see it. If you do, let me know in the comments. It was really great getting pictures with the guys from the film. Don’t forget that you can head over to Instagram and Twitter and check out my cheesy smile! Subscribe to Into Film for more behind the scenes interviews and … I’ll see you next time.