MIA'S PRAYERS ARE FINALLY ANSWERED

Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton reveals how she improvised her way to a leading role in Wes Anderson's new film

- GILL PRINGLE

Mia Threapleton admits that she wept tears of joy on the London Underground after learning that she had been cast in a leading role in Wes Anderson's new film The Phoenician Scheme.

“I genuinely didn’t believe it was true,” Kate Winslet’s daughter says. “I was on a train at the time and I just sat down on the floor and had a little cry.”

The role is a game-changer for Mia, who, though grateful for Kate’s advice and support, has never wanted to trade on her mother’s famous name.

When she auditioned for the role, she got Academy Award-winning Kate to play opposite her as she read her lines for a tape sent to director Wes – but asked her mother to stay off screen and disguise her voice, which she did by putting on a Cockney accent.

Wes says: “Mia was one of many people auditioning and she was very good.

“I saw her on a little small square on my computer screen and I thought: ‘Well, whoever this is, she’s got special talent. Eventually, I put together that Kate was Mia’s mother, but I didn’t know she was from an acting family when I saw her at first.”