From Titanic To Mare Of Easttown, Kate Winslet Proves That Her Acting Game Remains Unrivalled

¡°Doing something great is overrated. Because then people expect that from you all the time. What they don¡¯t realize is you¡¯re just as screwed up as they are.¡±

- Mare Sheehan

Mare Of Easttown has everyone in its grips. Kate Winslet as small town Detective Mare Sheehan isn¡¯t an exaggerated version of a cop. She has cracks which come to the surface more often than not and an unfleeting will power to get to the bottom of a murder of a teenaged mother who mysteriously dies in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Sheehan is somewhat of a local hero who won an important basketball match 25 years ago.

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In the present, she leads a troubled life and is almost on the brink of falling apart as she copes with her son¡¯s suicide, turbulent family life and nowhere to vent it all out.

Without giving away any spoilers, this show is a whodunit drama and Mare is shown at the epicenter of it all. The beauty of this character lies in it¡¯s rawness. Keeping it as real as she can. Kate Winslet, who is also the executive producer of the show, is seen wearing unflattering clothes, sporting permanent weariness, conversing in an unmissable Pennsylvania accent(IRL she¡¯s british) and the best one of all - she plays a grandmother to a young boy.

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One one hand she herself is bereaved following the loss of her son and on the other, she goes against all odds to find out the murderer. Now, the storytelling isn¡¯t unique but powerful and the performances of everyone including Winslet are exceptional.

However, the one little thorn in my side is the over the top appreciation and accolades that Winslet seems to be getting for the HBO mini series. Before you go all ballistic, it isn¡¯t what you think. Anyone who has been following the Titanic actor¡¯s career would know that she is not only a seasoned artist but is known to take up challenges when it comes to choosing her projects.

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It¡¯s unfortunate that her true calibre still somewhat goes unnoticed and she isn¡¯t celebrated as much as she should have been. More than Mare Of Easttown, it¡¯s vital that we celebrate the woman of the hour who has been consistently giving her best to every project she¡¯s ever done. It won¡¯t be wrong to say that she has the potential to give any actor regardless of their gender, a good run for their money. From graceful Rose to tough cop Mare, here are some of the most phenomenal roles played by Kate Winslet.

Juliet in Heavenly Creatures (1994)

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The film opens with Kate Winslet screaming and running towards the camera with her face covered in blood! Sounds surreal right? Well, she made quite an entrance for a teenage actress making her feature film debut. Playing Juliet, a posh English teenager who gets into an obsessive relationship with the working-class Pauline, Winslet was quite a revelation who had the potential to make every scene her playground and portraying a deranged character with no hesitation. It was from this very film that people with an eye for detail, knew that a star was born!

Marriane Dashwood in Sense And Sensibility (1995)

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Kate Winslet bagged her first Golden Globe nomination for playing the hopelessly romantic Marianne Dashwood in this Jane Austen adaptation. She played sister to the amazing Emma Thompson and portrayed an extremely opposite temperament from her onscreen sister. Winslet's character undergoes the trials and tribulations associated with young love. This period drama also focused on the dark side of society which had different sets of social protocol for the women of the 19th century. Even though she lost the Globe, Kate won her first BAFTA award along with her first ever Oscar nomination for this monumental role.

Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997)

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This role somehow became her claim to fame. Decades on, people still associate Kate Winslet with her onscreen Titanic role Rose. Her beauty and innocence mixed with James Cameron¡¯s scintillating direction, made her a big hit with people across the world making it her most memorable role till date. Many of her scenes including the portrait of hers that Jack aka Leonardo DiCaprio draws in which she is just wearing the Heart Of The Ocean necklace or her and Jack¡¯s flying bit became iconic.

Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind (2004)

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With this role, she became eternal sunshine for most of us, didn¡¯t she? This out-of-the-box mind bending fantasy movie won Best Original Screenplay Oscar as it dealt with unfathomable qualities of a human¡¯s memories. Apart from the role, her hair colors were the talk of the town when the movie had hit theatres back in the day. In fact, Winslet told a magazine that this was her most favourite role. She broke the stereotype that she could only shine in period roles with this modern-day romance.

April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road (2008)

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Our favourite onscreen couple Jack and Rose reunited once again, only this time it was for a tumultuous relationship in Revolutionary Road. Winslet played an unhappy wife who yearned to move to Paris to escape her bland life in suburban Connecticut and start afresh. The intense fights and arguments that she has with her husband Frank added bucket loads of drama to their strained relationship. This unhinged and raw portrayal fetched Kate a Golden Globe making her the third actress to receive Golden Globes for both supporting and leading roles.

Hanna Schmitz in The Reader (2008)

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Winslet won an Oscar for playing Hanna Schmitz, an illiterate Auschwitz guard who has an affair with teenage Michael in Germany after World War II. Based on Bernhard Schlink¡¯s bestselling novel The Reader, Winslet humanises an unlikeable and troubled woman to haunting effect.

Joana Hoffman in Steve Jobs (2015)

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Playing a real person in this Danny Boyle directorial, Kate Winslet received her fourth Golden Globe award for her supporting role as Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs. She played a dressed-down and dark haired marketing Guru of Apple who provided the much needed emotional relief in this Aaron Sorkin screenplay. She also bagged an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

Iris Simpkins in The Holiday (2006)

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Shedding her period role image, Winslet took on rom-com as a respite but again managed to floor us with the chameleon quality of making every role her own. She played a columnist who swaps her home with Amanda Woods aka Cameron Diaz and relocates to LA temporarily. She meshed beautifully in this character and surprisingly her chemistry with Jack Black still tugs at our heartstrings. This movie is something of a Holiday staple every single year.

Alex Martin in The Mountain Between Us (2017)

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This survival adventure isn¡¯t the highest rated of the lot but still makes for an exceptionally amazing watch. Stranded on a mountain after a tragic plane crash, two strangers (Kate Winslet and Idris Alba) must work together to battle the extreme elements of the remote and snow-covered mountain. Realizing that help is not on the way, they embark on a perilous journey across hundreds of miles of wilderness, pushing each other to survive and discovering their inner strength.

With this new show Kate Winslet has reached the masses as she rightly should!