A decade and a half ago, Kate Winslet rode the crest of the "Titanic" phenomenon to superstardom. She was already a BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee, but inhabiting the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater made her an instant Hollywood A-Lister. Now, with director James Cameron set to release a new, 3D-enhanced version of the film, Winslet is a bit flummoxed by the emotions it recalls.
"It's really weird because it's 15 years ago and I don't know, I feel very disconnected now from actually what was going on in my life at the time and how I felt," she recently told Stylelist. "A lot of it, it does really feel like a distant memory, so it's going to be quite strange to have that sort of thrusted into people's face all over again. I've no idea what it'll be like, the experience, but it's exciting to think that a whole new generation of young men and women who, perhaps, haven't seen it, who may have been conceived after the first date night of a couple going to see 'Titanic.'"
Indeed, "Titanic" certainly was the love story of the late 90s, though it's hard to be sure just how many little Roses and Jacks were born nine months after its release. Given its box office take of over $1.8 billion worldwide, it figures to be quite a few.
As for DiCaprio, the Jack part of that equation, producer John Landau recently said that he was enamored by the footage that he saw.
"Leo, who was 20 when he shot the film, was at first very verbal when he saw the 3D version. He kept saying, 'I don't look like that anymore,' but then he became absorbed into the film as if he's seeing it for the first time," Landau told The Hollywood Reporter.
Winslet was also in her early 20s when the film was shot, and as she told Stylelist, given the current media environment, she doesn't think she would have been able to handle the fame had "Titanic" first hit it big today. With that mind, she's doing her best to be a good example for the young actresses that do have to make their marks in 2011.
"I really take that position actually quite seriously, because I think we do live in a world where there's quite a lot of pressure now," she said. "So I do feel there's this responsibility in myself to speak steadfast and true, at least be something that a younger generation can look up to and go, 'Oh she's alright,' and, 'She hasn't injected her face with anything,' and 'She's got a normal figure.' It's important."
To that end, she started the British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League, with Emma Thomson and Rachel Weisz.
"I will never give in," Winslet told the Telegraph this summer. "It [cosmetic surgery] goes against my morals, the way that my parents brought me up and what I consider to be natural beauty ... I am an actress, I don't want to freeze the expressions of my face."
For more, click over to Stylelist.