With a career spanning over three decades, Kate Winslet has garnered widespread acclaim for her compelling performances across both film and television. She first gained international recognition for her chilling work in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, and she ascended to superstardom with her iconic role as Rose in James Cameron’s Titanic. The latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination.
Winslet went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz in the 2008 film The Reader. Her latest venture finds her both producing and starring in Lee — a biopic about pioneering American photojournalist Lee Miller, who covered World War II for Vogue.
More: Kate Winslet on challenges + triumphs producing and starring in Lee
For her Treat, Winslet reminisces about her childhood. It was a happy, modest upbringing in a small house without a TV or a VCR until she reached her early teen years. Despite these limitations, she and her family found joy in simple pleasures — particularly through a record player. "Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song),” is a folk tune by the English duo Brian and Michael which Winslet fondly recalls singing, dancing, and performing along to in the family’s front room. These memories capture her childhood happiness, where the real joy came from each other’s company and the music that let them be silly and let go.
More: Kate Winslet’s candid and expansive chat with Elvis Mitchell
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I had a fantastic family. We lived in a very small terraced house, which could be described as a sliver of a building wedged between a bank and a takeaway fish and chip shop.
We didn't have a television, and we didn't get one until I was 10. We didn't get a VCR machine until I was 15. Both of those things were handed down to us from other people. We did have a record player, and my siblings and I were very animated — extremely close, constantly dressing up, putting on shows, being ridiculous, dancing, and putting things in our hair. We used to absolutely love twirling around in our front room with the record player going, and it would be “Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs.”
I've never talked about that … And it became something of a ritual. There was something about letting go, being silly, and because there are children who sing on that record, we thought: ‘Oh, we can be like that.’ We can be those joyful fun kids. We can be those performers. We can have fun and make joy right here in this front room.’
When you listen to those voices, you picture lots of children kind of skipping in a street, you know, playing bat and ball up against the brick wall side of a building and just making fun out in the open air. I feel very nostalgic about that time because we really had so little, but we were happy. That sort of sums up childhood happiness for me.