Kate Winslet has spilled the beans on how she rehearsed for a flirtatious accent in The Regime.
Speaking at The Regime FYC panel event in Los Angeles on June 5, Winslet got candid about the efforts that went into the making of her onscreen character Chancellor Elena Vernham, a corrupt dictator of a fictional European country, including a quirky accent.
"It never made sense to me to speak like myself," said Winslet who has experimented with different accents in previous roles like the HBO show Mare of Easttown.
"I didn't quite know what that meant, or what I was going to do about it. I just knew that I had to find something that didn't feel too close to me."
The Oscar-winning actress went on to share how she made sure to get constant feedback as practised the accent in her kitchen.
"Don't do that. It's actually made my ears bleed," she recalled her family's banter.
Winslet, 48, didn't stop at that as she also left voicemails to executive producer and director Jessica Hobbs to work up her accent in hopes to also seek approval from executive producer and director Stephen Frears.
"I knew he was just going to have an opinion, and once it was out of his mouth, I wouldn't be able to unhear it, and so I shared it with Jess [Hobbs], who was very positive in her response," Winslet recalled. "So I sat Stephen down [and tried out the voice]. 'Do you see if I just maybe did that? And then a little bit and talk to you slightly flirtatiously, I could probably get you to do anything. Luckily, he was laughing. He looked at me, and he said, 'You've got to do that for six months.' "
The Regime also stars Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton and Hugh Grant opposite Kate Winslet.
