Kate Winslet to Make Directorial Debut With ‘Goodbye June’ for Netflix
Kate Winslet is set to make her feature film directorial debut with the Netflix family drama Goodbye June.
The Oscar winner will also produce and act in the movie, which will star Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, Andrea Riseborough, Timothy Spall and Helen Mirren. Joe Anders, Winslet’s son with ex-husband Sam Mendes, wrote the screenplay and Kate Solomon will produce with Winslet.
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Solomon also produced Winslet’s most recent feature, the Lee Miller biopic Lee about the model-turned-World War II photographer, which included Riseborough among its cast.
Winslet scored a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the film, with Lee also nominated for the BAFTA for outstanding British film of the year.
Netflix describes Goodbye June as a “touching, yet humorous” drama, “which sees a fractured group of siblings pull together under sudden and trying circumstances.”
The England-set present-day drama will begun production soon in the U.K.
While promoting Lee last fall on the How to Fail podcast with Elizabeth Day, Winslet explained how though she had resisted calls to direct, partly due to the time commitment involved, she now felt a sense of “urgency” and responsibility to women in Hollywood to step behind the camera.
“So many people will say to me on film sets, people I work with and know well, whether it’s an actor or a crew member, they will say, ‘Why aren’t you directing?’ and I’ll go ‘No, no, no, please don’t say it. Stop saying it. Why does everyone keep saying it?’” she said. “But the more I’m not doing it now, with the need to change the culture, the more I feel like I’m actually letting down other women by not doing it. I’m really starting to feel that in quite a loud way.”
She added of female directors, “The more of us that are doing it, the more will be inspiring others to do it.”
And she said she felt ready to helm a film because she now understands the technical side of filmmaking.
“There’s no way I’m ever going to do something unless I really know how to do it properly,” she said.
In addition to Lee, Winslet most recently starred in the HBO limited series The Regime, for which she also received a Golden Globe nomination, earning the rare distinction of being nominated for multiple roles at the same ceremony. She won the best actress Oscar in 2009 for her role in The Reader.
Winslet is repped by CAA and United Agents.
ScreenDaily first reported on Winslet lining up her directorial debut.
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