Avatar actress Kate Winslet credits her 'mind, body and spirit' for acting strength
Twenty-five years ago after the release of Titanic, actress Kate Winslet, 47, reunited with Academy Award-winning director James Cameron in the film, Avatar: The Way of Water.
We first witnessed the magical splendour of the underwater world of Cameron's Avatar thirteen years ago on the big screens. But did you know, he had written an early treatment for the original film in 1994, even though the means to realise his vision did not yet exist? Embarking on the production more than a decade later, the trailblazing filmmaker brought the wealth of knowledge he had amassed on the sets of his earlier triumphs—including such unforgettable blockbusters as Titanic, The Terminator, T2, Aliens, True Lies and The Abyss — to Avatar, creating a live-action film that transformed motion capture into performance capture and pushed visual effects technology to a new and astonishing frontier.
In the long-awaited sequel, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) were forced to flee their homeland and seek safe haven in the distant atolls of Pandora. After making the long journey across the vast oceans of Pandora, the Sullys arrive at the home of Metkayina clan, led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). There, Jake invokes Uturu, a Na’vi tradition stating that any refugee seeking sanctuary must be granted safe harbour. Reluctantly welcoming their guests, Ronal and Tonowari instruct their children Tsireya (Bailey Bass) and Aonung (Filip Geljo) to attempt to help the Sully kids adapt to the water clan’s customs and traditions.
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Winslet's new role as a pregnant warrior leader saw her attempting challenging underwater scenes, like breath-holding and freediving. I asked Winslet during a roundtable before the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, whether she had any form of combat training as well for the film. This is what she said:
"I have never trained in any form of fighting at all; it’s just not been part of my life or my work. But one thing I will say is that I am quite physically capable and active as a person. So doing these physical things that are challenging is not something that is daunting to me.
Also, when you're an actor, you film for really long periods of time and you shoot extremely long hours. You're up at 3:34am, you go to work and you shoot a 12-hour day. Then you come back, you learn your lines for the following scenes and you go to sleep. Now that I'm the age that I am, you have to live in a really quite structured way in order to prepare and take care of yourself. And part of that is maintaining just a basic level of health and fitness so that you don't get sick and can withstand this kind of crazy hours.
I felt really ready to take on this kind of physical challenge of breath-holding as I am a healthy, balanced person in my mind, body, and spirit. When you are doing a long breath hold, you really have to empty your mind, calm your whole nervous system and slow your heart rate down. So actually, I'm quite used to extreme forms of discipline, when I'm working, as that really helped me when it came to the adjustment and the challenge of the mind and body connection with breath holding. It was really interesting."
When Cameron first approached her with the new role, she quickly said yes. She told us why:
"Doesn't everyone want to be an Avatar? I loved the first film and found it incredibly powerful and deeply moving. And I thought all the performances were just astonishing. To have the opportunity to work with Jim (James Cameron) again after 25 years, and to spend time with those other actors was just an incredibly exciting opportunity. For me, I also was really interested in motion capture, and learning about that; it's always really exciting to learn and try something new."
As it's been 25 years since Winslet last worked with Cameron, the actress listed some of the differences and similarities they both shared:
"I think there are probably lots of differences in both of us. I mean, even though it's actually 25 years since we were filming it; that's over half of my lifetime so things have changed. I've become a parent; Jim has become a parent again.
Since then, we're both, hopefully, wiser, more creative, more daring, more experimental as artists, creatives and collaborators. I think that's probably the main difference; hopefully, just as storytellers, we've become a little more evolved and interesting."
Winslet also sang praises of her co-stars, especially Zoe Saldana who made her feel welcomed into the Avatar family. She added:
"I think I just had extra luck with the coaches who were part of the film. I also worked with other actors like Zoe (Saldana), who was amazingly supportive. She had developed these characters 13 years ago – the voice, the movements, how they sounded, how they felt, and how they lived their lives – she was very generous in sharing with me.
It's wonderful when you can have that kind of relationship with another actor; it makes the experience much more connected and collaborative. And yeah, I felt very well supported."
Watch Avatar (2009) on Disney Plus
Avatar: The Way of Water opens in cinemas on 15 December in Singapore and Malaysia.
