Kate Winslet's Best Advice To Her Kids: "Be Yourself"

Kate Winslet, the youngest actress to have ever received five Academy Award nominations, has two movies opening in December: Revolutionary Road (directed by husband, Sam Mendes) and The Reader. In Revolutionary Road, she plays a young wife in violent revolt against the complacency of 1950s suburbia. In this flick, she is reunited with her Titanic co-star and longtime friend Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate sits down with Parade magazine to discuss her upcoming movie roles, and her role as mother to 8-year-old Mia Honey, and 4 1/2-year-old Joe Alfie.

On wanting a 'normal' life for her children: “Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears. For my own children, I do want for them to look back and remember that it was me in the kitchen, that I was doing the packed lunches, that we were there on the school run, that we did take a bus. I want them to remember those things, because those are the things that I remember from my own childhood and that have been incredibly important to me. I also think that those are the things that children need in order to become normal kids. I don’t want them to feel that they are any different because of my job or Sam’s job.”

On dining out with their kids: “We like them to see those things as a treat, as they should be—and still are to me, actually. We were having lunch, and I was having a glass of wine and eating bread and putting butter on the bread, and I turned to Sam and said, ‘I am just so happy!’”

On her own childhood: “We never had any money. I really grew up in a world of struggling actors who were doing it because they loved it. We were all always told, ‘OK, if this is really something you want to do, that’s fine. Just know it’s going to be hard. It was always, ‘You might not get it. Go for it. You’ve nothing to lose. Just work hard and be yourself.’ That was the main thing we were always told. ‘Be yourself. Don’t try to be like the girl who is ahead of you in the line. Be yourself.’”

On the best advice she gives to her own children: “‘Be yourself—that’s all you need to be. Why do you want to be like that person? Be you. Be you.’”