HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” just ended its run and has quickly become one of the best series to arrive in 2021. You can’t discount lead actress Kate Winslet’s effect on that verdict, as she is the primary reason the drama is as hard-hitting and enjoyable as it is. And according to a new interview with the New York Times, Winslet thinks part of the reason why people are relating so much to her character of Mare in the series is because the actress is playing her as a real woman, not a Hollywood version of what a middle-aged person would look like.
Playing a middle-aged woman as authentically as possible in an HBO series (or any Hollywood project, for that matter) is incredibly difficult, as Winslet points out. She had to fight the director and the marketing department multiple times to make sure they didn’t do any fancy editing or touch-ups on her look in the series, as she was trying to present the most truthful version of the character as possible.
One issue came when director Craig Zobel told her that he would cut “a bulgy bit of belly” in her sex scene with Guy Pearce. She replied with, “Don’t you dare!”
Then came the promo poster, which she sent back multiple times because the marketing team tried to retouch her picture too much. “They were like ‘Kate, really, you can’t,’ and I’m like ‘Guys, I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them all back,’” she explained.
Showing her stomach the way it actually is and not allowing the marketing people to retouch the promotional materials is all part of what Winslet hopes is the true portrayal of a middle-aged woman. Her character in “Mare of Easttown” isn’t a Hollywood version of a middle-aged woman. No, Winslet is hoping that playing the character as she would really be helps people connect with the series.
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“Listen, I hope that in playing Mare as a middle-aged woman — I will be 46 in October — I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters,” Winslet explained. “She’s a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”
She continued, “In episode one, she’s having sex on a couch. I said to my husband, ‘Am I OK with that? Is it all right that I’m playing a middle-aged woman who is a grandmother who does really make a habit of having one-night stands?’ He’s like, ‘Kate, it’s great. Let her do it.’”
“Mare of Easttown” just ended its run on HBO this weekend and is now available to view in its entirety on HBO Max.
