'I WAS STARTLED BY HOW READY I FELT'

Kate Winslet on gathering a starry cast for her directorial debut as she brings her son's screenplay to life

- GILL PRINGLE

It has been an extraordinary year for Kate Winslet.

First, she watched her daughter, Mia Threapleton, 25, enjoy her big break when the young actress appeared in The Phoenician Scheme with Scarlett Johansson. Now, her elder son, Joe Anders, 21, has brought his first screenplay to life with a little help from his mother.

His deeply personal script for Goodbye June moved Kate so profoundly that she wanted to direct and star in the film herself.

Having been accepted to study at London’s National Film and Television School, Joe had been encouraged to write from his own experience. “His grandmother - my mum – passed away in 2017, when he was a teenager,” Kate says.

“He saw how our vast family came together under quite strange circumstances, and from all different parts of the world, to be there for his grandmother, with whom he had a wonderful relationship.

“Joe remembers so keenly feeling: ‘My God, we're all here because we all came from this one woman.’ He took that inspirational backdrop and created this fictional family with their own set of circumstances. I was surprised by just how good it was.”

Initially, Joe thought that his mother was being too effusive about his script. “He said: ‘What are you talking about? No, no, no, Mum; it’s not that. It’s just a [school] assignment.’ And I said: ‘Well, no, it could be a film, and I’d like to produce it and I could play one of the sisters,” she says.