There Was a Moment In Time When Everyone Thought Kate Winslet Was Trying to Become a Pop Star

In last night’s series premiere of HBO’s The Regime, Kate Winslet—in character as Elena Vernham, chancellor of an unnamed fascist European country—goes onstage at a state dinner and serenades the crowd of dignitaries with Chicago’s 1976 hit “If You Leave Me Now.” As USA Today puts it, Winslet sings “cringingly off-key, but delivered with full-throated gusto”—and Winslet actually was told to sing worse during the scene, as she is, in addition to her many other talents, quite a good singer.

“He said, ‘Sing it badly,’” Winslet said of director Stephen Frears. “It was a brilliant piece of direction, because it let the audience know that you’re supposed to laugh. ‘Welcome to this delusional woman’s world.’ So that was my biggest note: ‘Do it worse!’”

USA Today writes that this was “hardly Winslet’s first time singing onscreen. The Oscar winner has a lovely voice, which she lent to many of her films in the 1990s, including Heavenly Creatures, Sense and Sensibility, and Holy Smoke!”

“I do enjoy singing,” Winslet said. “I sing around the house a lot. My husband [Edward Abel Smith] probably enjoys it more than I actually think he should. I’m not really that good.”

Winslet was good enough to, in 2001, record the theme song for the animated Christmas Carol: The Movie, a track called “What If.” Winslet originally agreed to record a version as a placeholder, assuming the film’s producers would find another artist to record the ballad.

“They all seemed to really like it, and then they wanted to release it as a single,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is bizarre.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine, but all the proceeds absolutely have to go to children’s charities.’ But that was never really made clear, so it totally looked like I was trying to launch a pop career.” The British newspaper The Guardian even published an article about Winslet’s alleged pivot to music.

Winslet wouldn’t be the first movie star to launch a career in music, but she wants to officially set the record straight—she’s not interested in that. “I was never attempting to embark on a singing career!” Winslet said. “I like acting too much.”

Of the character of Elena, Winslet said, per The Hollywood Reporter, “I’d never come across a character so unique, so unusual, so sort of unimaginable and dislikable. And I just knew, I had to make this something else. This has got to be something I’ve never done before; I’ve got to really scare myself. I have to really challenge myself.”

The Regime is another turn on the small screen for Winslet, who also starred in HBO’s Mare of Easttown in 2021, and Mildred Pierce on the same network 10 years before that. “The great joy of television for an actor is that it’s a real indulgence, because you get so much more script,” Winslet said. “You get more story, you get more to play with. When you hold a film script, it’s maybe 100 to 125 pages thick—unless it’s written by Aaron Sorkin, in which it’s usually about 250 pages. But one episode of The Regime or Mare was 60 pages long. So it’s 360 pages of just pure delight.”