Little did Kate Winslet know in 2011 that playing an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in the film Contagion and shadowing CDC epidemiologists as research for the role would pay off in spades less than a decade later.
In her new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress discussed her approach to the current pandemic, saying, “I think it’s the unknown element of this virus — we just don’t know how it’s going to affect any given individual — I think that was what’s so terrifying. I’m a very practical, straightforward person, and if I have to respond to an emergency, I just go into that zone.”
Which is why back in February, while on set in Pennsylvania shooting HBO’s Mare of Easttown, she says*,* “People thought I was crazy because I had been walking around [Philadelphia] wearing a mask for weeks, going into the grocery store and wiping everything down with isopropyl alcohol and wearing gloves. Then all of a sudden March 13 came around, and people were like, ‘Fuck, where do I get one of those masks?'” Meanwhile, on March 13, Winslet was already on a flight back to her home in London where she’s been quarantined for the past five months.
Winslet adds that there is a bright side to forced social-distancing when it comes to award show season, explaining to the outlet, “I can be barefoot and I don’t have to put a dress on and feel sick. So it’s awesome. I can have my glass of wine just out of frame.”
However, there is one side effect of the pandemic she wasn’t prepared for: “Now that I’m going to have to go back to work, I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, I’ve forgotten how to act.’”
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