Kate's Heavenly career 'NOW I'M RUNNING A COUNTRY!'

The Hollywood heavyweight’s calling the shots again

She’s one of the most celebrated screen stars in the world, but hardly a day goes by when Kate Winslet doesn’t thank her lucky stars for our small nation at the bottom of the world.

It was, after all, in New Zealand that the Oscar winner got her big break playing teen killer Juliet Hulme in the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures, made by Kiwi director Sir Peter Jackson and his film producer wife Dame Fran Walsh. And her appreciation for The Lord of the Rings movie moguls has never waned.

“There’s not a single day in my career that goes by that I don’t feel the most extraordinary gratitude for Peter and Fran,” Kate shares.

“They must have seen something in me when I was a little nobody and really terrified, and honestly didn’t know how to act on fi lm. That was the beginning of my career.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the big-little movie that launched Kate’s enviable Hollywood career.

Three years after Heavenly Creatures became a surprise box-office hit, she landed firmly on Hollywood’s A-list courtesy of her stand-out performance in Titanic.

Ever since, the famously down-to-earth star has often surprised her fans by taking roles based entirely on whether she found them interesting rather than how many dollars were going to land in her bank account.