Kate Winslet blasts sexism in filmmaking

Kate Winslet says the crew on Goodbye June were underpaid because of sexism.

The 50-year-old actress says she couldn’t secure a big enough budget for her directorial debut because she is a woman, leading to some of the crew having to take less than their usual rate.

“When you’re a woman, you do a huge amount of ringing around and calling in favours so sometimes with a budget like Goodbye June you might be asking people to come and work for less than their weekly rate,” she said while speaking on Kermode Mayo’s Take podcast.

“I’m talking about department heads and their crew. Sometimes people take a little bit of a hit because they want to come and be part of that experience and they want to support you and we did have that on Goodbye June.”

Winslet says female and male directors are treated differently.

“It’s somehow there’s this societal assumption that [men] will automatically know what they’re doing, whereas the same assumption is not made of women,” she said.

“That’s not right and actually it’s not fair because what it does mean is that it will be harder for us to get films made, harder for us to get the kind of budgets that we need to make those films.

“But actually, I just think there’s this very strange thing with women, especially when you’re an actress who transitions into directing people,” she said.

“People just think that you’re a little bit too vain and want to stay in your trailer all day, and ‘will you really do it well?’

“It’s a different set of language that is used talking to actresses who become directors as opposed to male actors who become directors.

“Strangely with male actors – and this is absolutely no criticism of them at all because when I think about the brilliant young actors in this country who have been directing recently it’s incredibly exciting – but they’re just allowed to get on with it.”