Kate Winslet takes Greg Williams down memory lane

We had a garden shed that was just right here and I had a pet rabbit called Snowy. I think our house is deserted. God, that is sad, isn't it? People often don't believe this about me because I speak very well, so it sounds like I would have been very well-educated, well-bred, from privilege, etc. And that's not the case at all. And my parents had very, very, very little. The one thing that they did do for us, because it was free, was they enrolled us in a fantastic theatre company that was based here in Reading. Now we're heading towards the Hexagon Theatre, which is the place that I first ever went on stage. It's crazy. When I was 11 years old, in a production of Bugsy Malone. But look at this incredible architecture. I mean, it is extraordinary. It could be Berlin, couldn't it? This is where you would come in if you were coming to see a show. If you were rehearsing, you would run in here. If we were in a show, we would go in through the stage door downstairs. That was quite a big moment because it was a little bit like walking over the threshold. I totally remember doing huge dance numbers on this stage. None of it's ever left me. I mean, it's a very, very big part of my work ethic now, I think. I seem to remember I somehow came on from back here somewhere, screaming. And this is Bugsy Malone. This is Bugsy Malone. Yeah. I'm feeling fine, filled with emotion. That was my sister Anna here doing beautiful, beautiful singing. And then I came in at the back going, Oscar, I'll give you one more chance. Do you hear me? That's what I did. And these were the dressing rooms. There was a much bigger dressing room for sort of chorus, people who were in the chorus. But people who had actual roles did get a dressing room. Usually you'd be sharing, well, you would be sharing, entirely sharing with lots of people. Did you learn to deal with nerves here? I think because we were all in it together. It was more a feeling of excitement than there was. And it was nervous excitement. It was, yeah, it was nervous excitement. As an actor, most of the sort of prep time is really spent kind of just shitting yourself, really. Shitting yourself. It's true. Shitting yourself, procrastinating, you know, you keep weird hours. Didn't the shitting yourself get even worse when you were the director? I mean, the really great thing about being a director is that there is an official prep period, pre-production, where all the heads of department are involved. You find all the locations. The design is mapped out. All the costume fittings take place. The film gets built and constructed. As an actor, I said to her, it'd be really, really lovely if we can just try and get everyone's fittings and all that stuff done and out the way so I can have a proper rehearsal period with everyone just so that the rhythm is the same for all of the actors going into our day one. And I was able to have that. And I was able to do a lot of things that I'd had kind of on my private wish list. I really would love to not have booms on poles. I would really love to have locked off cameras and the crew just walk away so the actors can just be in that space together. And I was able to do that on Goodbye June. And that year would have been, I think this would have been 1990. That's my sister, Beth. Annie, Beth Winslet. Look at that. Miss Hannigan, Kate Winslet. That's me, you see, right there. That's me here. Who is it? This is me here, yeah. And that's me there. 15, yeah. Were you ever the star of the plays? No, I was never the star. No, I never got the main part. That wasn't why I was doing it. It's a very strange thing, Greg. I never sought out fame. It came and sort of found me in a weird way. I used to do quite a lot of children's voiceover, voiceovers for foreign films. Which in those days they would call dubbing, proper dubbing. Because I was very good at doing accents. I had a really good ear for accents. Because it was things like bus fares and saving for train fares that did take me to London for auditions. Took me to the delicatessen to earn the money to pay for the train fares to go to auditions. Where I would then start getting jobs in London. And I would get the train from Reading to London a lot. And I'd run around with my little A to Z running from audition to audition. You know, you just hope that you're going to get a gig. So I've just directed my first film. So strange to even say those words. Yeah, I just directed my first film. It's called Goodbye June. And it was written by my son Joe, who's 21. And I'm enormously proud of it. In your film there are similarities to your life. As in your character has two sisters and a brother. Your mother is dying of cancer. And written by your son. Yeah, he was encouraged by a fantastic writing tutor. Write what you know, Joe. And the most significant thing that had happened in his life was the loss of his grandmother, my mum. And when she died, he was 13 and a half. When I was much younger, I had a boyfriend actually who died of cancer. My own experience of losing people to cancer has been significant. There's clearly something, there's something about the stories that we experience as human beings who go through loss. We all lose people. We all came from somewhere. And whatever family looks like to you, you've come from something. Would you consider doing theatre again? Yeah, I'd love to do theatre. I would. Just has to be... Open call. Just has to be the right time. Kate is up for doing theatre. Oh yeah! We're going from the Hexagon Theatre to the delicatessen where I used to work. And where I was working when I received the phone call to tell me that I had been cast in Heavenly Creatures, which was a film I did directed by Peter Jackson. And that was the film that really did start my whole career. It's crazy. 33 years ago. Lovely to meet you, Maureen. Thank you. This is good, this walker. Where are you from? I am from Reading. I'm from Reading and I used to work in this shop when this used to be a delicatessen years ago. And I used to work in here. This was my day job. And then I became an actress. Oh, right. Yes. So what do you do? So I do films. Oh, lovely. Yeah, yeah. So I've been very lucky. You wouldn't want to film me. I'm really pleased with you. I'm very lucky. I feel really happy now. Good, that's good. Well, you're definitely rocking the walker, Maureen, I tell you. Lovely to meet you. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you very much. Take care. Nice to meet you. The guy who owns the shop was a wonderful man named Chris Rogers and he was a family friend. The phone rang and he answered the phone and he popped his head around the wall and he said, Kate. And he said, Kate, phone for you. And I was like, and I thought, that's weird. Why is someone phoning me at the shop? I didn't make any sense. Where the toilets are was the little office and that was where the phone rang and it was my child agent who said to me, who's a clever girl then? And I had got the job. And so I then had to quickly leave work because I was so flustered. And I ran through here, all through here, all down here to get the number 17 bus, which was down there. And I ran there rather than to that bus stop because it was 10p cheaper. Number 17 bus, right there. That is quite something. It cost about 30p to get home. Love it. I obviously joined you as you were doing a sound mix at Abbey Road Studios. Did you enjoy all those? Did you enjoy that aspect too? I absolutely loved, and I really mean this, I loved every single part of it. I've always said this, you can never stop learning. In life, I believe that you can never stop learning as an actor. If you decide you know everything, you are fucked because it means that you'll stop listening. That's my old house. And you lived here for how long? I lived here until I was nearly 17. Yeah, until I was nearly 17 years old. Yeah, crazy. My mum very proudly planted beautiful bushes in the front garden that had bright yellow flowers. And they were there for a very, very long time. Front door was black and white. It was red when my first memory of it was that it was red. And then it was painted, I think possibly by my dad, black and white. And I think it might still be black and white. So there is the black and white door. It looks like maybe no one lives there. But that's the black and white door. We used to swing on this gate. We used to swing on that gate. Yeah, that's all exactly the same as it was. Remember the sound of the letterbox? There's a wonderful old shoemender. His name was Alec, the shoemenders, who was down the other way. And he was forever re-soling our tap shoes and redoing the taps or re-spraying them if the leather all got scuffed and things like that. I'm trying to remember what was here. There was a pizza hut. Oh, a pizza hut's still there. Are you famous? Well, I could be. I know exactly who you are. Are you sure? Yes. You can't remember who exactly? I know you from a film. From somewhere. I can't remember where you're from. It's going to come to you. It will. Have you seen The Holiday? Yes. Well, there you go. Can I take a picture? See, this happens. She knows I'm famous, but she doesn't know who I am. I know exactly who you are. But that's how I survive. People don't know who I am. It's brilliant. Oh, well done. Nailed it. Are you serious? This is the alleyway where I learned to ride my bike. Remember, the handlebars were never really like that, and those old bikes, they were like that. So you'd grate your knuckles down the sides. So we all, all of us, forever had knuckle grazes from going... We had a really sweet garden. My mum was very proud. She had a blackcurrant bush. It's very rare to find a blackcurrant bush now. And she would make summer puddings for my dad, which was his favourite. Still is his favourite pudding here. I think it was this, the garden shed that was just right here. And I had a pet rabbit called Snowy. My God, look, and there's no... There used to be a fence between the two houses. I think our house is deserted. God, that is sad, isn't it? But what you can see, what you can still see, this is cool. You can see the remnants of my mum's old garden. Look how she made, like, she made like little beds on that side and then this side of the path. Of course, I used to think it was huge. And we'd have a paddling pool. We had a paddling pool that went on this side here. But you know what? We had a ******* garden. Most kids now don't even have a garden. They don't even have a window that opens more than that much, you know? So we felt, we felt really lucky with what we had. We did. I swear to God, we did. We properly felt like we were, we had a home and we had this nice garden and we had our rabbit. And I don't think anyone's in there. You look quite emotional. I feel quite sort of, I suppose I feel really fascinated by how, fascinated by how similar it is. But I feel, I feel sad about the house. I do feel sad about the house because it was always just a perfectly lovely little terraced house. Tiny, tiny, you know. But, but it's a shame that, well, God knows what it is now. But it doesn't look like a home anymore. And that's, that's sad. That is sad. Right, I'm going to say thank you and goodbye. Thank you and goodbye. Amazing. Oh, we're finished? Thank you, thank you. Finished. Bless you. That was so good.