Kate Winslet Was Labeled a 'Fat Girl' By Drama Teacher as Actress Recalls 'Appalling' Moment Early in Career
Kate Winslet revealed even her grade school classmates cruelly called her 'Blubber.'
Dec. 22 2025, Published 6:45 p.m. ET
Kate Winslet has shared how brutal the entertainment industry is about weight shaming, noting how she was once told she could only get "fat girl parts" when she broke into acting as a young girl, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Oscar winner, 50, started out acting at the age of 11, describing how a drama teacher made the "appalling" prediction she would never be able to land decent roles outside of ones where the character was "fat."
Kate Winslet Was Told She Would Only Land 'Fat Girl Parts'
Winslet called her former drama teacher's 'fat girl' comment about her weight 'appalling.'
"I was a little bit stocky," Winslet confessed about her childhood shape during an upcoming appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. "When I did start taking it much more seriously and got a child agent, I really remember vividly a drama teacher vividly… and she said to me, 'Well, darling, you'll have a career if you're ready to settle for the fat girl parts.'"
The Titanic star proudly boasted, "Look at me now," adding of the teacher from her childhood, "That wasn't very nice, was it? It's appalling the things people say to children."
'They Would Call Me Blubber'
The actress became self-conscious about her weight in her teens thanks to childhood taunts.
Winslet went on to recall how she was bullied in grade school for her weight.
"I had a lot of kids tease me at primary school," she heartbreakingly shared. "They would call me blubber. I wasn't even overweight. I just had stocky thighs, and they would lock me in the art cupboard, and they would say, 'Blubber's blubbing in the art cupboard' and things like that."
As a result of the bullying about her weight, The Holiday actress said she began dieting in her teen years.
"It's the only thing in my life I really regret because long-term, not eating properly or eating and panicking about what you'd eaten or waking up in the morning and the first thing I'd think about is, 'Oh my God, do I look fatter, do I look fatter?' That went on for a really long time," Winslet confessed.
Learning to Develop a 'Thick Skin'
Seen in 1998 with her 'Titanic' co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, Winslet received constant criticism about her weight.
The cruel teasing drove Winslet to work even harder to succeed as an actress.
"I learned to have a pretty thick skin fairly early on, to be honest," The Reader star admitted.
"But at the time it was happening, I just threw myself into my theater company and my creative world outside of school, so that the school mean people became as insignificant as I could possibly make them. I wouldn't let them spoil a trajectory that I was determined I was on."
The Weight Comments Have Never Stopped
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The Oscar winner said her mind was blown by how much her figure was scrutinized in 2021's 'Mare of Easttown.'
Unfortunately for Winslet, the cruel comments about her weight continued after the December 1997 release of Titanic made her one of 's biggest stars.
"It was almost laughable how shocking, how critical, how straight-up cruel tabloid journalists were to me," she said in a 2021 interview. "I was still figuring out who the h--- I b----- well was! They would comment on my size, they'd estimate what I weighed, and they'd print the supposed diet I was on. It was critical and horrible and so upsetting to read."
Even with her Emmy-winning turn in HBO's 2021 limited series Mare of Easttown, viewers were picking apart her physical appearance playing a small-town Pennsylvania police detective.
In the same interview, Winslet revealed, "The discussion about how Mare looked blew my mind."
"People were asking, 'Did she gain weight? Didn't she look frumpy? Wasn't that brave of her?'" she continued. "But why should that be brave? I suppose because it's not how leading actresses are represented."
Winslet hoped, "Maybe Mare will be the tipping point, and we're going to stop scrutinizing women on screen quite so much."
