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Kate Winslet Interview
The Life of David Gale is a powerful rape and murder drama about how a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter, Bitsy Bloom (played by Kate Winslet) works against time to try to save an innocent man. David Gale (played by Kevin Spacey) is on Death Row after having been convicted of killing his colleague, Constance (played by Laura Linney). Bloom has only a few days to uncover the truth through her interviews with Gale, and in the process, get her story. Winslet explains why she had put her other film scripts on hold for this. Why were you attracted to this film - was is the role or Alan Parker or Kevin Spacey? I gave birth to my daughter in Oct 2000 and this was the first thing that I read when I was kind of coming back to life. I completely loved it so I phoned Alan up and said, "Can I be in it?" This was a year before making the film, then it all went quiet. I kept getting other scripts but kept asking, "Well what happened to that David Gale film?" It was just one of those special scripts that I just couldn't throw away and it sat in a special place on my kitchen table. Four weeks before they started shooting, Alan called. I felt passionate about it and Bitsy was just such an incredible character. So far away from me and who I really am that I knew it would be a great challenge. And it was great fun to tear around in jeans and biker boots and not a corset. What do you think of the death penalty? I was surprised about how political we all started to feel about it. Laura in particular, because of the level of research she had to do, she found herself tracking what was going on. She called recently and said this new law has been passed in Texas where they can't execute the criminally insane. That is an incredible thing because these men who are not of sound mind when they committed the crimes have been executed. I do disagree with that. Being a parent, if anybody touches my child, I would want them dead. So in that context I do believe it depends on circumstances. From your point of view, are Constance and David heroes? To operate in the way they did and fight for these men on Death Row, in the manner that they did without getting paid or anything, yes they are heroes. They had no personal connections to these men but just felt deeply passionate about the cause. You play a journalist, has it in any way changed your view of journalist? Yes, I know all your secrets now (laugh). I am more sympathetic to what you do and also more intrigued. Even though you all seem to just be sitting here listening to what I say, you all have your agendas, and some plan as to what you're going to ask me, and how you're going to present yourself to get more out of me. How did you prepare for the role? I spent time with several high profile female journalists based out of New York. It was the conversations with them that helped me understand who this woman was supposed to be. I think Bitsy was an incredibly ambitious journalist who wanted to be the best at what she did, and wanted to be successful very young. An understanding that level of ambition in that very difficult world was helpful. |
