Kate Winslet's Son Was Nervous To Show Her The Film He'd Written

It's only you lot that always talk about it. Someone started a rumour that I'm telling you is completely not true. What? Really? I swear. We're joined by someone who has most definitely appeared in one of your favourite films of all time, if not multiple. An award-winning actress with five BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, a Grammy and an Oscar under her belt. She's also a mother, had a top ten single and is now a director too. Welcome Kate Winslet! All those things sound so embarrassing. They're incredible. But it's a lot of stuff. It's a lot, isn't it? It makes you sound greedy. Like she's got all of them just for herself. Actually, do you know what? It makes me sound grand and I'm so not grand. I'm not grand at all. But your achievements are. Yeah. And they should be celebrated. Stop being British, Kate. I don't think it's British, it's just being me. I just, I don't know. I sort of, I think because I never imagined any of that in my life. I didn't sort of dream that big ever. I just wanted to get a job as an actress. And I thought, well, you know, maybe I'll do the odd episode of Casualty in a bit of theatre. I didn't imagine any of all of this. And I was very proudly, I'm very proud to say I was in Casualty when I was 16. Really? Were you ever in The Bill? No. Because that was a real rite of passage. I feel like everyone was in The Bill. My dad was in The Bill. My dad was in Casualty, The Bill and Crime Watch. Crime Watch in a reenactment? Yes, I am. I'm an FO baby. That's amazing. No one's ever said that. That's really funny. Well, we're going to talk about your new film, Goodbye June. Kate, I mean, you made us all cry. My husband was very concerned for me. I was just like, watching it going, we walked to Deliveroo and went, what's wrong with you? It makes you sort of laugh, makes you cry, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you cry, that's the feedback we're getting. It's a rollercoaster. For those who are waiting to see it, give us the headlines for those who haven't seen it. So Goodbye June is a contemporary story and it's essentially about a messy, chaotic family of quite distant siblings who are processing the impending loss of the matriarch. It's set at Christmas, it's set in England. And it is a very touching, funny, uplifting story about loss and life, really. And I had seven weeks in which to shoot it. It was written by my son. And he had gotten a place on a screenwriting course in London at the National Film and Television School. And whilst he was there, he had to write a screenplay. And it wasn't a surprise to me that he showed a real passion for writing because he'd always written very, very well, even as a young child. But that doesn't necessarily translate into being able to write a film script. But he did it and he showed it to me at the end. And he was very sort of nervous and a bit embarrassed. And he said, you know, it's a bit of an experiment and you probably won't think it's any good. And I read it. I was like, okay, well, you've written a film and it's going to be a film and we're going to do it. And he's like, what? No, mum, don't do that. Don't do that. You don't need to big me up. It's not a piece of home. What you have to make me feel proud of. I said, I'm telling you, it's really good. Work on it some more. We'll have a proper conversation. And originally I was going to produce it because I produce as well now and I was going to play one of the three sisters and there's a brother too. But right at the point that Netflix had come on board and we were going to start approaching directors, I suddenly realised I couldn't let it go. And I wanted my son to remain a part of it. It is beautifully written. But one of the things that surprised me most, you know, when I knew that your son had written it and obviously is a young man. It's so relatable. And those family dynamics are so relatable. And to be able to nail those complicated family dynamics. What was he drawing on to get all of that so well? So he's just always been very observant and he was encouraged to write from the heart. And he lost his grandmother as a teenager, my mum, and was so struck by how we all came together because of our love for this one woman and that we all came from this woman. And so he took that as his emotional backdrop and then created a fictional story with a fictional family. It's set in Cheltenham and it's set at Christmas time and actually giving it that Christmas backdrop I thought was so genius because that sense of the clock ticking and the days going by and you know that you're getting closer to a big event running in parallel with this mother getting weaker and pulling the family closer together so that she can be at peace before she leaves them all behind. It is a really wonderful script and the dialogue was just so rich and joyful for all of us. And funny. And there's so much, there's a lot of healing in it and I love the gay storyline. She's very cute. Thank you. It does remind me that I can fall in in the darkest times as well. But I'm glad you bring that up actually because, you know, something for us that's enormously important just as people in the world and how we are raising our kids, you know, inclusivity, diversity, representation matters enormously and that's why one of our two five-year-olds in the film is a little boy with Down syndrome. That mattered massively to us and this child is just, he's magical. And children, you know, children in anything in life they bring the joy and it was my job as the director of these seven kids of varying ages including a six-month-old baby which was actually identical twin girls, thank God. But it was my job to kind of create a situation for them that felt really safe, really fun and honestly they all thought they were on a 35-day extended play date. We only had 35 days to shoot the film. Oh my goodness. And Helen Mirren who plays the title role, I only had her for 16 days. No way. Because she loves to work so she just finished one thing, came to us and was hopping off to do another. That's great. She's extraordinary. She is just extraordinary. I would give anything to be like her. She's just wonderful. Oh my goodness. I mean you mentioned the kid that plays your youngest son and there was a scene, I've got a geeky question, just because I've got a daughter who's 20 months old now and there was a scene where you're sitting in the corridor in the hospital and you're holding him and he's asleep and I remember watching that scene and thinking this is perfect, like perfectly timed because you're having quite like a nice little dialogue with your brother and he's asleep and I thought was that planned or did you just grab him and go he's asleep let's do that shot. So with this wonderful little boy, the character is called Benji and actually his name was Benjamin just amazingly and in fact that prompted me to then decide that all the children when they first met should introduce themselves in their character names because it would be so much simpler not just for him but for our other five-year-old who's a typically developing five-year-old and actually it was brilliant because whenever they were on camera and they never knew when we were rolling because we would quietly roll so that you capture the natural moments with children, whenever spontaneous dialogue, words, conversation would come out of their mouths, it was always usable because they were always using character names but to that scene so what had happened was we had planned what we were going to do the little boy was going to be putting stickers on our faces whilst the two grown-ups myself and Johnny Flynn are having this conversation in the corridor of the hospital sitting there with our shoes off and just you know like you do because when actually you're dealing with potential loss you get to a point as a family where no one's really going home anymore and you don't really change your clothes you know your clothes become that sort of floor drobe of mess on the ground you just pick the things back up and go back to hospital again but actually he was he was suddenly really sleepy and his dad said look he's really he's quite tired and I said don't worry about it and I and I took him in my arms and I just rocked and I just kept him asleep and we just quietly rolled the camera and he just stayed asleep because that is also something else that happens everyone's routine goes really off kids you eat at funny times everyone falls asleep when they need to you know the grown-ups and the children and actually it was a very very very beautiful moment he really he brought the magic into every single moment that he was with us on camera he's very very special I loved it was so relatable especially when you went I didn't move because he'll wake up and I was like every parent has been there yeah you're not moving go just go get the crisps I mean he was brilliant but the cast you but you know Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall who was again I'm remembering bits that made me cry but also made me laugh for that and Tony Collette, Stephen Merchant who sadly was the character I related to the most when he forgets the yoghurt I forgot the yoghurt well he forgot to get the sheep's yoghurt yeah it was a very specific yoghurt but was that I mean I guess for your directorial debut it's almost a double-edged sword right because those are actors who you know are going to do an amazing job but they're also actors who by definition have worked with the greatest directors in the world so did you feel like it was a really safe space where you could play with those amazing actors or was there a little voice in the back of your head thinking these guys really know their stuff and this is my debut and I need to like absolutely nail this what I had in the back of my head was precisely what you just said these guys know their stuff and actually what's important to acknowledge is that when you get actors who can function at that level and prepare really properly you know they come to work ready to go they're not leaving anything to chance they also don't want to get it wrong and don't want to let each other down especially when you're part of an ensemble like that one and I will say that I've worked with some really phenomenal directors in my life some directors who are brilliant with actors and absolutely have that language available to them and other directors who are a little bit more visual and don't necessarily feel as comfortable having that language with actors and so you know you figure out you kind of decipher what's good for an actor and what's actively not good at all and sometimes if a director will try something with you and they'll think they can kind of trick you into a way of thinking or being or throw you off you smell it out and it actually can make you a little bit defensive and super protective of what your original instinct was so I knew that going in and actually I felt I felt quite confident that I was able to at least offer them a working environment that really felt very collaborative really open quite uncluttered in terms of our crew we had a brilliant wonderful crew but we worked closely together to make sure that if anyone didn't need to be in that space that we would just leave them leave the actors to it and and often we would set camera angles and we would roll and everybody would walk out of the room then we would close the door and leave the actors completely alone we had hidden microphones everywhere everyone was individually radio mic'd which is very standard but typically children actually they don't always radio mic them and the boom operator will just think okay well I'll just hang in the corner and I'll grab that piece of dialogue but because I knew we had children who we were actively saying don't learn any of those lines because it might not work for what wants to come out of your mouth when we get there so we're just going to play and make lots of mistakes because we love mistakes okay go and they would just think that they were playing and they totally were and it was honestly wonderful to see how much they embraced this complete world of make-believe that we all created I wonder if there were any hidden cameras in your house at christmas time oh god what does christmas day look for your family you know christmas day for us it's like you know lots of cooking lots of chaos nice presents I do quite like a oh yeah of course of a christmas morning you've got to start I will start with a bloody mary that's my start on a christmas day then I'll move on to the bucks then champagne so you mix is what you say oh big time big time yeah yeah it is normally this time of year that I fall for a meme about the holiday sequel holiday two I always think that is actually going to happen do you think that could happen at some point I'm gonna come clean it's never come up it's only you lot that always talk about someone started a rumor that I'm telling you is completely not true what really I swear I think you know what the problem is I think did it come out before whatsapp was a big thing yeah because if there was if there was oh yeah there we go so if there was a whatsapp group with you all in then which there isn't well exactly because there's not an option for it but then it would come up and then we'd have it I honestly I don't I have no give it to us would you do it would you do it if it had come up I'm not having this conversation what if your son wrote it do you think I'm going to give you a sound bite it's going to be more more treatable than me talking about my film if we call it the holiday june it was like a june version let's talk about the green tinsel that you've wrapped around well look um well there was one other thing but maybe you're not going to want to talk about this either in our notes no I haven't but I'm just scared to bring it up we mentioned we mentioned in the beginning of your of your intro well no that you've had a top 10 single yes and it was a christmas song listen there's a tick tock campaign they're trying to get you to christmas number one really yeah they're actually trying to get it to christmas number one right it would be great for the film it would be great it's nothing to do with the film doesn't matter well I'm honored to think that that that song held a place for people yeah it's very very kind of people my goodness but I'm not on any of that I don't see any of that it's brilliant and that's why we bring it to you whilst we're doing Kate Winslet bingo I'm just going to say Titanic I mean I think we should that's okay you're allowed are we allowed yes well I had a theory that it's a no because it's snowy in will's house have you noticed it doesn't snow there's a bit where snow falls when out on the deck isn't there I'm sure there is have you written that I think there is I think there's no falling when the iceberg hits spoiler alert um there's definitely some kind of snow some sort of flake of the iceberg I'm gonna say I know it's set in April the real thing happened in April but snowfall I'm sorry I'm just googling you're googlizing it it doesn't snow oh my god this is like a moment no you're right you're right you're right I take it back I totally know yeah okay I'll take it back it snows in goodbye june one of my favorite lines in the whole film which really set me off because it I could imagine somebody in my family saying it is when is when um your mum says that she hopes she comes back as snow yeah because I can see you all at Christmas time I know it's very very lovely it's very moving but it's touching it isn't sad no yeah it's very very touching and relatable there's a lot of hope I think it's a reminder to keep your loved ones close and if you've got any arguments sort it out just sort it out because you know what today is happening right now tomorrow's tomorrow so you've got to live for today in every capacity and I really really believe that and I think that's also a little bit of a hidden message in the film as well if there is a message it's so useful yeah you have to see it everyone has to see it goodbye june is out right now thank you so much for talking to us Kate Winslet should we play your song would you like us to play it