Kate Winslet is in her “life is too short” era, and we all here for it. Known for speaking her truth, the Oscar-winning actor has been making headlines while promoting her upcoming biopic Lee, in which she portrays renowned photojournalist Lee Miller. Winslet’s viral comments have included pushing back when a crew member had advised her to suck in her stomach to hide her “belly rolls” during a topless scene and subsequently dismissing her reaction being hailed as “bravery.”
In an interview during History Channel’s History Talks at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Saturday, Winslet continued speaking her mind on the topic.
“I quite like making statements. And actually, I have to say, I’m at the point where I’m just like, You know what? Life is too short,” she said onstage. “But it is one thing that’s been happening to me quite a lot recently, people will say to me, ‘Oh, my God, so you were so brave in this performance, you had no makeup, and you look really kind of crappy.’ And I think, do we say to the men, ‘You were so brave, you grew a beard?’
“And then there’s another one, how do you juggle being a mother and having a career?” she continued. “Do we say, ‘How do you juggle being a father and having a career?’ I mean, we’ve got to change this dynamic.”
Winslet, there to discuss the making of Lee and Miller’s remarkable story, was one of several Hollywood A-listers who participated in History Talks, along with Kevin Costner, Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria and John Legend. They were joined by two living U.S. Presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and several historians.
Kevin Costner
Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for HISTORY
Costner is known for his Western movies, which are epic in scope and length. His Oscar winner Dancing With Wolves is 3 hours and 1 minute, Parts 1 and 2 of his current saga Horizon are 3 hours 1 minute and 3 hours 10 minutes, respectively.
The actor-filmmaker has spoken about developing a fascination for the American West at a young age and the influence movies like 1962’s How the West Was Won and 1956’s Giant have had on him. That influence stretches beyond subject matter and filmmaking style.
At History Talks, Costner recalled how he was 7-8 when he and some friends were taken to the Cinerama Dome for a boy’s birthday to watch How the West Was Won.
“It was a 4-hour movie. So it’s no surprise, mine are three,” he quipped.
For the record, an online search lists How The West Was Won at 2 hours and 44 minutes, but it probably felt like 4 hours to a 7-year-old. But Costner said he was hooked on the “magic” of the movie — with the “huge” mountains, “moving, real” water and costumes that were “right” to a point that when the break came, “everybody left for intermission, and I didn’t. I wasn’t going to give up my magic seat. I waited for that movie to start again, and when I was over, it marked me.”
Costner also spoke of the impact watching Giant had on him. “It’s another 3-hour movie. Get the picture with me,” he noted. (Giant‘s exact length is 3 hours, 21 minutes.)
He highlighted the final scene where Rock Hudson’s Texas oil tycoon character is beaten into a pulp by a bigoted local restauranteur who wouldn’t serve his Mexican daughter-in-law, with the tycoon’s wife, played by Elizabeth Taylor, kneeling down to him, telling him “You’ve never stood taller.”
“I’m 12 years old, and I watched that, and now I know who I want to be,” Costner said. “So, for movies and all their phoniness, there is so much we can learn about who we want to be.”
As he kept referencing movies from the 1950s and 1960s, Costner spoke of art’s longevity when done right.
“It doesn’t matter when you make a movie, it’s going to live forever, so it matters what details you put in it because if you put the right details in it, it’s going to be relevant, and that’s the one thing I hope in my life,” he said. “It’s not hard to be popular; it’s very difficult to be relevant. I want my life to be relevant, and I believe that you would do too.”
The 2024 History Talks kicked off with a fun off-the-record conversation with former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush conducted by their daughter, Today anchor Jenna Bush Hagar.
It was followed by an interview with Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, who took a trip down history, accessing the impact of historic figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ulysses S. Grant.
“There are certain figures who touch on something deeper, they teach us to tell a different story about ourselves and who we are,” he said. “It turns out that those stories matter. It’s the most powerful tool we have for good and for ill as we still see in the world today.”
In his typical style, Obama was self-deprecating, poking fun at the infamous Web site glitches at the launch of Obamacare, and he also had a witty response when asked about what Presidential term in history he would’ve absolutely not wanted to serve.
“Well, look, I think it’s a given that Barack Hussein Obama being president in the 1800s, factoring that out,” he said to a laugh from the audience. “It was hard enough in 2008, processing that for a lot of folks.”
Also taking the History Talks stage were Nicole Avant and Kerry Washington, who spoke about the inspirational true story behind their upcoming World War II Netflix movie The Six Triple Eight, written and directed by Tyler Perry, and Eva Longoria and John Legend, who discussed art and activism. The Grammy-winning artist closed out the event with a three-song-set, including his signature hit “All of Me.”
The brainchild of A+E Networks Group president Paul Buccieri who opened the presentation, History Talks has been held for several years, primarily in DC. This year’s Los Angeles-based edition was designed to raise awareness for The Roybal Film and Television Magnet in downtown L.A. The LAUSD school, serving children from underrepresented backgrounds interested in Hollywood careers, was launched in 2022 by George Clooney, Grant Heslov as well as CAA’s Bryan Lourd who was among the speakers today, with about 200 students from the school in the audience.
Notable attendees also included Bob Iger and Dana Walden from A+E Networks co-parent Disney, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos who was there to support his wife Avant, and CBS’ George Cheeks.