A FAMILY AFFAIR

THE ACTRESS MAKES HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT WITH A FILM WRITTEN BY HER SON

-  By Nikita Lee

With 70-odd film credits to her name and counting, it's surprising that Kate Winslet has never been in the director's chair before now. And it wasn't a Hollywood bigwig who convinced her to try her hand behind the camera, either, but her 22-year-old son, Joe Anders.

Winslet told Tudum of becoming involved in Goodbye June, a drama about dysfunctional siblings coming together at Christmas for their mother's dying days.

“It was written by my son, Joe Anders. He had left school and he had started to declare that maybe he was interested in acting, actually ... but he'd always been a writer from when he was a little boy.

“He was in screenwriting school and he came out the other side, and he said to me, 'I wrote something, and I wonder if you'd read it.' And he said, 'It's probably really crap. Just read it, and you'll tell me what you think.' And I read it, and immediately it was clear to me that this was a screenwriter and this was going to be a film."

Winslet, 50, saw promise in the project - so much so, she attached herself to the character of Julia and signed herself on as a producer. Pegging it as her directorial debut, though? That was the British actress taking a last-minute leap of faith into the creative unknown.