I Love Kate Winslet

I have seen many interviews with actors, live and on TV, and there are those that seem to be truly humble, those that are falsely humble and those that don't even attempt to be humble. There are those that are serious all the time and those that try to be easy-breezy funny. But I haven't seen one as truly humble, down to earth and genuinely entertaining as Kate Winslet. I once saw her interviewed by NYU's Prof. Richard Brown (who is presumptiously in the no attempt to be humble category) and although the interview was only supposed to last a half-hour, she chatted away for over two hours about her work and her life (she likes to talk about her kids). So I was very excited to go last night to a Times Talk with Winslet and her husband, film-theater director Sam Mendes who has directed her in the upcoming Revolutionary Road (co-starring Leonard DiCaprio).

I was lucky enough to have a front row seat to the proceedings and I was not at all disappointed. Winslet and Mendes were so adorable together and so funny - for example, she gently chided him when he said the interviewer's question was an "Entertainment Weekly" type question and he said "if you insist" when she said she had decided to show Titanic to her eight year old daughter. They told funny stories about the filming of Revolutionary Road, even though they claimed they had no funny stories, including one about how Mendes removed himself to another room while they filmed a sex scene but still shouted out directions from the other room ("dig your hands into his back") - apparently while they both found the situation incredibly awkward, Leo had no problem with it. They also kept complimenting each other - at one point, Mendes compared Winslet's style to Judi Dench and she looked genuinely touched and elated by the comparison. Both pointed out multiple times how lucky they both are to be able to do what they love and they seemed to really appreciate how great their opportunities have been. As Mendes put it, he once asked Tom Hanks on the set of Road to Perdition whether he was OK and Hanks' reply was I'm dressed as a gangster on the lot at Warner Brothers, about to shoot Paul Newman so what could be bad?

As much as I loved seeing Winslet and Mendes, unfortunately the talk did not make me want to rush out and see Revolutionary Road. Since Winslet is my favorite actress and DiCaprio is high on my list of favorite actors I am sure I will see it but it sounds as if it may be a depressing and headaching inducing exercise. A film about two people trapped in an unhappy marriage in Darien, Connecticut? Um, certainly not a rollicking good time. Even the few scenes that they showed were depressing and from what Mendes revealed about the plot it only gets worse. Here's another look at the trailer? What are you all thinking - excited or no?