'Being famous was HORRIBLE'

Kate Winslet on being fat-shamed early in her carrer and her last role

- MICHAEL DARLING

When Kate Winslet won the Leading Actress gong at the BAFTA Television Awards last year, it was the latest in a long list of wins for the star in a career that spans four decades.

The award was for I Am Ruth, an instalment of C4’s anthology series of standalone stories about women, which Kate co-wrote and starred in. It was the newest addition to a collection of awards that also includes four other BAFTAs, two Emmys, five Golden Globes and an Oscar, which form part of the dozens of nominations she has received over the years.

Now she looks set to receive more accolades as she stars in Sky Atlantic’s darkly comic drama, The Regime, which has already aired in the US to rave reviews.

Set in an imagined country in central Europe, the six-parter sees Kate take on the role of Chancellor Elena Vernham, whose dictatorship is beginning to unravel. Having grown increasingly paranoid and unstable, she turns to volatile soldier Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) who’s employed to protect her and becomes an unlikely confidant. And as she attempts to expand her power, it plunges the nation into further chaos…