While starring in "Titanic" might have established Kate Winslet's career, the actor has admitted the subsequent fame she found was "horrible."
The "Regime" star, 48, opened up about the discomfort she felt about her notoriety following the release of James Cameron's 1997 romance-tragedy epic in an interview with Porter.
"I felt like I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant," Winslet admitted.
"Journalists would always say, 'After Titanic, you could have done anything and yet you chose to do these small things' … and I was like, 'Yeah, you bet your life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible,'" she added.
But while there were unpleasant aspects, the Academy Award winner added, "It's not a burden, any of it.
"[Titanic] continues to bring people huge amounts of joy," she continued, joking, "The only time I am like, 'Oh God, hide,' is if we are on a boat somewhere.”
Winslet previously spoke about her fame following the success of "Titanic," recalling during an appearance in a 2021 episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast how she went "into self-protective mode right away" after her breakout role because she felt "bullied" by the U.K. media.
"It was like night and day from one day to the next," she said, according to People. "Also, I was subject to quite a lot of also personal physical scrutiny, and criticized quite a lot — the British press were actually quite unkind to me.
"I felt quite bullied, if I'm honest," Winslet continued. "I remember just thinking, 'Okay, well, this is horrible and I hope it passes.' And it did definitely pass but it also made me realize that if that's what being famous was, I was not ready to be famous, thank you. No, definitely not."