Winslet & son

Real heartache behind scenes of Christmas weepie

- GABRIELLE DONNELLY

IF EVER a film were a family effort, it is the upcoming Goodbye June, directed by and starring Kate Winslet, from a script by her son, Joe Anders, loosely inspired by the death of Joe's grandmother and Kate's mother, Sally Bridges-Winslet.

Goodbye June is a sweet and tender family weepie, the story of a fractured family of four squabbling siblings - played by Kate, Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette and Johnny Flynn - who come together to bid farewell to their cancer-ridden mother (Helen Mirren) over the Christmas season.

It delivers a poignant mixture of laughter and tears, along with some more complicated moments that will be all too recognisable to familes up and down the country.

What is remarkable is that the screenwriter is only 21.

Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes - whose father is Kate's ex-husband, director Sam Mendes - made his feature film debut at the age of 15 with a small part in his father’s much-acclaimed war drama 1917.

At 18, under his new stage name of Anders, he appeared alongside his mother and his half-sister, Mia Threapleton, in the Channel 4 television drama I Am Ruth.

A year after that, he starred as a small-town teenager with big dreams of pop stardom in the musical comedy Bonus Track; and last year he joined the cast of Zoe Kazan’s upcoming television miniseries East of Eden, based on John Steinbeck’s classic novel of the same name. All the while, he was honing his skills as a writer.

“He's always written,” says mum Kate, smiling proudly, when we speak over Zoom.

“He's always been a brilliant writer of poetry. When he was in school he made very meaningful contributions to many creative projects to do with the theatre.

“So it didn't surprise me at all that he wanted to get a place at a screenwriting school in London.

“What did surprise me was that he was brave enough to apply, because he’s a very humble person who’s quite insecure about his own ability.