Kate Winslet To Her Childhood Bully: ‘Thank You For Being Such A B—h’

Film star Kate Winslet really opened up, during her appearance on Running Wild with Bear Grylls, talking openly about body shaming and the affect that kind of bullying had on her as a growing teenager.

“When I grew up, I never heard positive reinforcement about body image from any female in my life. I only heard negatives,” Ms. Winslet said. “That’s very damaging, because then you’re programmed as a young woman to immediately scrutinize yourself and how you look.”

Kate learned something from her own experiences and Ms. Winslet says she makes every effort to ensure her own daughter, Mia, doesn’t grow up surrounded by that same negativity.

“I stand in front of the mirror and say to Mia, ‘We are so lucky we have a shape. We’re so lucky we’re curvy. We’re so lucky we’ve got good bums,” Winslet revealed. “And she’ll say, ‘Mommy, I know, thank God.'”

Kate shared that she wasn’t always the Hollywood beauty she is today, having had her own awkward phase that drew the attention of bullies throughout her adolescence. Ms. Winslet’s story is familiar to many of us, yet it may seem oddly comforting to know that someone of Kate’s stature was once subjected to the same humiliations as so many others. For Winslet, it seemed she could do nothing right, especially when it came to that one classmate.

“I was bullied at school…I was chubby, always had big feet the wrong shoes, bad hair. There was one girl who was particularly horrible to me.”

As chance would have it, Kate revealed that she happened to run into that one particularly demoralizing bully years later when Ms. Winslet had outgrown that awkward phase and had grown into her calling as a Hollywood A-lister.

“I want to thank you for being such a b—h because it made me a lot stronger,” Ms. Winslet told that bully.

Currently, Kate has just finished filming Triple 9, a crime drama in which she shares the spotlight with the upcoming Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot. The experience was as positive as Ms. Winslet might have hoped and if Gal’s words are any indication, the on-set experiences were equally inspiring for Ms. Gadot.

“Kate and I had a very good bond. I’m used to shooting movies that are male-dominated … Yeah. So working with Kate was basically the first time I got the opportunity to work with an actress who’s a mother, too. We had so much in common. Once you’re a parent, you already have that in common. Now I have the same thing with Isla. We always talk about the kids and how to manage working with motherhood.”

Triple 9 is scheduled for a March 4, 2016 theatrical release.

[Featured image: Kate Winslet courtesy of Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]