Kate Winslet openly discusses mental health taboo

Kate Winslet says that playing problematic characters has taken a toll on her mental health.

The 50-year-old actress revealed that playing emotionally draining parts has often been detrimental to her wellbeing and she has even needed "proper support" to separate herself from roles in the past.

Kate told the Lessons from Our Mothers podcast: "There's this thing that happens as an actor, and it sound very self-indulgent so I very rarely say it.”

"But when you play a really difficult part - I think of Mare of Easttown, for example, which flattened me, my god - you do have to kind of come out the other side,” she added.

The Titanic star continued: "I call it re-entry. Re-entry into your own life, going back into your friendships, reintegrating into the rhythm of family again. Exiting a family, leaving people behind, letting a character go.

"It takes a while, actually, to unpick a character from your system, especially if you have played them for a long time, which, with television, you really do,” Kate further stated.

The Holiday actress also revealed that she needed professional help after starring in the 2021 HBO crime drama Mare of Easttown, where she played the role of a troubled Pennsylvanian detective after the coronavirus pandemic caused havoc with the production.

"It was meant to be a six-month shoot,” Kate recalled.

The Oscar-winning actress continued, "Covid happened after the five months that we had been shooting, and everything got pushed, and when we came back, our five remaining weeks turned into 10.”

"By the end of the whole thing, I'd been playing that character for over a year. And I really honestly went a bit mad. It was quite weird. It's the only time in my life that I actually had to get some proper help, to come back to myself,” Kate Winslet added.

"It sounds completely insane, and even as I say it, I feel quite uncomfortable saying it, because I'm aware of how bonkers and indulgent that can sound,” she admitted in her conversation on the podcast.