The actress chatted with us about why filming in Australia is the best, and her favorite of all the incredible period costumes in the film.
Set in the 1950s, the indie gem The Dressmaker stars Kate Winslet as Tilly Dunnage, a woman returning to her rural Australian hometown several years after being forced to leave over a tragic childhood incident.
Tilly is now an accomplished dressmaker who returns home from Paris to help her ailing mother and also piece together what happened those many years ago when, as a child, she was blamed for a terrible accident and sent away by the town's leaders. Soon she is using her sewing machine and haute couture style to transform the townswomen into fashion plates while trying to reconnect with her mother (Judy Davis), who is now the town's bag lady. What Tilly doesn't expect is to fall in love with a local, Teddy (Liam Hemsworth), who sees Tilly as she really is, beyond all the town's prejudices.
Fandango spoke with Winslet about making the offbeat Australian film, working with Liam Hemsworth (and what her teenage daughter thought about it), and what the fabulous dresses in the film meant to her character.
Fandango: Australian films tend to have this wonderfully quirky sensibility to them. Is that something that appealed to you with The Dressmaker?
Kate Winslet: I was really attracted to The Dressmaker for those reasons. It's a little eccentric, a little bit risky, a bit out there, slightly quirky and a bit camp. I absolutely love Australian films for all those things. I also love working in Australia. I did it before when I was 22 and did Holy Smoke, which was directed by Jane Campion.
The thing about Australia, to be completely truthful, it's very far away. So when you're making a film there, you feel like you can do whatever the hell you want because you are very far away from the rest of the universe. There's no one judging. There's no one telling you you have to be the same. It's a wonderfully liberating environment to work in, partly because it really is very far away from everything else. And Australian actors are so fun and accomplished, generous and all those things. I was very lucky to be surrounded by such fantastic people in this film.
Fandango: Speaking of great Australian actors, Liam Hemsworth really shows some acting chops in this.
Winslet: He did, and he got to play a real person. Who Liam is really lent itself to him playing Teddy because Liam himself is a very humble, grounded guy. He's just lovely to spend time with. He's really unaffected, doesn't have a big ego, none of those things. And I think he'd tell you himself, he was thrilled to make a film in Australia. He'd never made a film there before, which seems so completely strange. [He has, however, starred in several Australian TV series.] So he felt really happy working at home and to be appreciated as a fellow Australian actor. Thrilled to be part of the gang on his home turf. And we were filming not too far away from where he grew up. All those things made the experience feel very, very real for him.
"I'm like, 'What's the big deal?' 'Mum, it's Liam Hemsworth!'
I know he was also a little nervous. He came to the shoot, and we were already about six weeks in. We had already done a lot of work already. We had him from three straight weeks because he was still doing a lot of press for The Hunger Games. So when he got there he was a bit “rabbit in the headlights.” Everyone's got their relationships going and there's a vibe going on on set. It's very difficult for an actor. It's like starting school when everyone's has already started. I really didn't want him to feel left out, so I made sure he knew we were all thrilled he was there.
Fandango: What happened when you realized you'd be playing a love scene with him?
Winslet: I was attached to the film a long time before anyone else was cast. Judy Davis was cast fairly soon after I was on board. The other cast members were slotted into place much later. So when I heard it was Liam, my daughter was like, “Oh no, no, that is not fair.” That was a bizarre situation. I'm her mum, and at the time was nearly 40 years old – I am 40 now – and I'm like, “What's the big deal?” “Mum, it's Liam Hemsworth!” “And? He's just an actor.” Quite funny.
Fandango: Well, you looked stunning in this film as well. Tell us about those gorgeous dresses.
Winslet: It was very important to get that right. It became clear early on in the process that a whole wardrobe for Tilly would be made separately by a different costume designer. So the costume designer for the film was Marion Boyce, and different woman, Margot Wilson, made my costumes. It was amazing really to have Tilly's wardrobe made separately because it meant we really had time to focus on it and fit everything perfectly. And really think about what would work for certain looks.
The red dress at the football match, as an example. That fabric was something Margot Wilson herself had bought when she was training and living in Milan. She had seen the fabric and thought she just had to have it, and would use it someday for something. The fabric is literally 35 years old. So when she came to the set, she said she had to tell me the story of the fabric, “I bought it in Milan years ago and just traveled the world with it, until one day. I think we should really make the red dress out of this fabric.” I felt honored that she was using that fabric on the movie. It probably was my favorite dress in the movie, but also the skirts, which were made with quite thin, swingy fabric. There's something about those vintage fabrics, they hardly don't even exist anymore. It was truly wonderful wearing those clothes and looking that polished. I normally don't get to look that polished.
Fandango: Did putting on the dresses help you connect with the role?
Winslet: [Tilly's] clothes are her armor. They are the things that have defined who she is and who she has become. She has learned how the woman has to wear the dress, not the dress wear you. And passing that along to the townsfolk, genuinely having a huge impact on those women and forming the way those women perceived themselves, the way they walk and stand and even think. There's something really gorgeous about that. It really just reminded me again the power of the dress. When you say Elizabeth Hurley, you immediately think of “THAT dress,” the Versace dress with the safety pins up the sides [which Hurley wore to the 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere with then boyfriend Hugh Grant]. That created her. It's pretty extraordinary when you think about it.
Fandango: What is your takeaway on The Dressmaker? It gets fairly dark towards the end.
Winslet: For me, it was always very much a fable. It’s set in a fictitious town, a story about a woman who is revisiting a time in her life because she has so many blanks. The courage to go home, enormous guts to go back to that place that is quite dark for her and holds some horrible memories. It's a story about mothers and daughters. It's about true romance. There's a purity about the romance between Tilly and Teddy that I think is very special. And that the comedic side to everything is just peppered a little bit with vinegar. Everything is just a little bit sour. I loved that. For me, it was great fun to be a part of something that we had a lot of license with because it's not entirely grounded in reality. It was a huge relief to able to play that.
Fandango: As for your upcoming projects, Collateral Beauty with Will Smith looks intriguing, possibly an Oscar contender. Can you talk a little about it?
Winslet: It's so amazing now that everything is a “potential Oscar contender” before it's even had a life. It was certainly a terrific film to be a part of, such a wonderful cast, working with Ed Norton and Will. And Helen Mirren. You know, I'd never work with Helen Mirren before, which seems weird, doesn't it? Us both being English. We barely even knew each other, met at a few events, but she is just a great lady. It's a wonderful film, a story about grief and how that impacts on someone's life – and his subsequent way out of it. I don't want to give too much away, but it is a very clever conceit. I was thrilled to be a part of it, a lovely experience.
The Dressmaker is in select theaters on September 23.
