Kate Winslet's High School Drama Teacher Told Her To Settle For "Fat Girl Parts"

Uproxx-  Last night, Steve Jobs star Kate Winslet was named Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the British Academy Awards. That trophy should look nice next to her two other BAFTAs, four Golden Globes, Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, and MTV Movie Award for Hottest On-Screen Chemistry with an Ocean Liner. Winslet is one of the best actresses out there (minus Movie 43), and she doesn’t “settle” for anything, especially “fat girl parts,” whatever that means.

After the BAFTAs, Winslet told the press:

“When I was younger, when I was only 14, I was told by a drama teacher that I might do OK if I was happy to ‘settle for the fat girl parts,'” Winslet told the press. “Look at me now!”

As the reporters laughed, [she] continued, “And so what I feel like saying in those moments is that any young woman who has ever been put down by a teacher, or a friend, or even a parent, just don’t listen to any of it, because that’s what I did — I didn’t listen and I kept on going and I overcame all of my fears and I got over a lot of insecurity. Just keep doing it and keep believing in yourself.” (Via)



Soooo, are we just not going to discuss the elephant in the room? Are we going to act like Kate Winslet wasn't more than likely a chubby, mediocre actress in her youth? I am happy that she ended up far surpassing her potential, but that doesn't mean we should criticize her high school drama teacher for assigning a cap to that potential. That's what teachers are supposed to do. They are supposed to point our children in the right direction. They should let kids know how good or bad they are at certain things. Sure, the main goal should be to make them better, but at the end of the day they have to grade a child for what they are, not what they could be. You go around telling every young girl they are the next Kate Beckinsale and it breeds a culture of contentment. If anything, Kate Winslet owes her old drama teacher a thank you for providing her with the motivation to improve. She can say that young women shouldn't listen to the critical things their educators tell them, but that would be disingenuous. If Kate Winslet didn't listen to what her teacher had to say she wouldn't still know -word for word- what her teacher said to her 25 years ago. The job of an instructor is to best help their students become successful, and if 14 year old Kate Winslet had gone out for skinny girl parts she likely would have failed. She's lucky she had someone there to tell her that so she could save herself some embarrassment. This isn't the first time that a prosperous person used the harsh critique of an authority figure to better themselves, it's just the first time we have associated weight with acting ability, but is it really a surprise that skinny people cast better in Hollywood?