Kate Winslet is getting deeply personal about her past — opening up for the first time about her teenage “intimate experiences” with girls.
During a recent appearance on the Team Deakins podcast, the Oscar-winning actress reflected on her breakout role in Peter Jackson’s 1994 psychological drama Heavenly Creatures, revealing that the film’s emotionally charged storyline mirrored some of her own early experiences.
“I’ll disclose something I’ve never shared publicly before,” Winslet said. “Some of my earliest intimate experiences as a young teenager were actually with girls. I’d kissed a few girls, and I’d kissed a few boys, but I wasn’t particularly developed in either direction at that point.”
Winslet explained that her connection to the film’s central relationship — a dangerously obsessive friendship between two teenage girls — came from a place of personal understanding. “At that stage of my life, I was certainly curious,” she said. “There was something about the incredibly intense connection between those two women that I deeply understood. I was immediately drawn into the vortex of their world, which ultimately became devastatingly harmful to both of them.”
The actress added that while she couldn’t fully grasp the darker aspects of the story at the time, she identified with the raw emotion and intensity that often define teenage relationships.
Heavenly Creatures marked a major turning point in Winslet’s career. It was the first time she’d ever handled a film script, and the role propelled her into international acclaim. The film also represented a dramatic shift for director Peter Jackson, who had previously made a name for himself with offbeat horror and dark comedies like Dead Alive and Meet the Feebles.
Following the success of Heavenly Creatures, Winslet quickly became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after young actresses, going on to star in Sense and Sensibility, Jude, and Hamlet before cementing her global fame with Titanic in 1997.
