Kate Winslet reveals she tested out her 'flirtatious' accent for The Regime by leaving hilarious voicemails for the show's producer
Kate Winslet has revealed she attempted to test out her 'flirtatious' accent for her role on The Regime by leaving hilarious voicemails to the show's producer.
The Oscar winner, 48, takes centre stage as the fictional dictator Chancellor Elena Vernham in the HBO satire, who risks plunging her fictional European country into civil war.
Speaking at an FYC panel event on Wednesday, Kate shared that while she was preparing to test out her accent on-set, she would send voicemails to executive producer director Jessica Hobbs.
She said: 'It never made sense to me to speak like myself. I didn't quite know what that meant, or what I was going to do about it. I just knew that I had to find something that didn't feel too close to me.'
Kate explained that she did experiment with the accent at home, leading to reactions from her family that included: 'Don't do that. It's actually made my ears bleed.'
Kate Winslet has revealed she attempted to test out her 'flirtatious' accent for her role on The Regime by leaving hilarious voicemails to the show's producer
The Oscar winner takes centre stage as the fictional dictator Chancellor Elena Vernham in the HBO satire, who risks plunging her fictional European country into civil war
Explaning the voicemails, the Titanic star added that she was plucking up the courage to test out her accent on executive producer and director Stephen Frears.
'I knew he was just going to have an opinion, and once it was out of his mouth, I wouldn't be able to unhear it, and so I shared it with Jess [Hobbs], who was very positive in her response,' Kate added.
'So I sat Stephen down [and tried out the voice]. ''Do you see if I just maybe did that?''
'And then a little bit and talk to you slightly flirtatiously, I could probably get you to do anything ... Luckily, he was laughing. He looked at me, and he said, ''You've got to do that for six months.'''
Kate Winslet is no stranger to taking on challenging accents for her TV roles, as she emulated Pennsylvania's Delaware County accent for her role in the HBO series Mare Of Easttown.
She told The Los Angeles Times in 2021: 'It's interesting, because I realize that as I was learning the dialect it was definitely affecting the emotional register of the voice I was finding for Mare.
'Because she was born there, she was raised there, I had to do it pretty darn well,' she continued. 'It was a little crazy-making, I'm not going to pretend it wasn't.'
It comes after Kate revealed that being sprung into fame following her role in Titanic turned her 'very normal life' into a 'traumatic' rollercoaster.
Speaking at an FYC panel event, Kate shared that while she was preparing to test out her accent on-set, she would send voicemails to executive producer director Jessica Hobbs
Explaning the voicemails, the Titanic star added that she was plucking up the courage to test out her accent on executive producer and director Stephen Frears
She said: 'It never made sense to me to speak like myself... I just knew that I had to find something that didn't feel too close to me'
Kate cut a chic figure in a smart white blazer during her appearance at the panel event
The actress admitted that she found it difficult to navigate her new life in Hollywood after the 1997 hit film, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio, because she wasn't used to being in the spotlight.
Following the release of Titanic, she confessed that having a normal life quickly became 'inaccessible' - adding that she struggled to have 'fun' and enjoy her stardom.
Kate, who was 21 when she filmed the movie, candidly revealed her true feelings about becoming a Hollywood A-lister as she spoke about how her humble upbringing made her rise to fame even more dramatic.
She lifted the lid on the aftermath of filming the Titanic while speaking on Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist.
She also noted that because of her 'normal' childhood, she found it difficult to enjoy her new life.
She said: 'It was really not much fun because I didn't have kind of an infrastructure, I guess, that went hand-in-hand with being a famous person.
'Like, I lived in a small little two-bedroom flat in North London, you know? I didn't have, like, security outside my home. I could never have afforded that kind of thing.'
It comes after Kate revealed that being sprung into fame following her role in Titanic turned her 'very normal life' into a 'traumatic' rollercoaster
She explained that at the time, she couldn't ask for any privacy because she felt like she had to just 'shut up and be grateful.'
Kate noted that the overwhelming amount of paparazzi that surrounded her home soon became too much to bear.
'I'm just trying to figure out how to walk out the door and not have an epileptic fit because of how many paparazzi flashbulbs there were in my face,' she said.
The Hollywood star also spoke about how her normal childhood made it even more difficult for her to adjust to life in the fast lane.
The entire series of The Regime is available to stream on HBO Max in the US, and Now TV in the UK.
