{"id":96598,"date":"2025-08-27T15:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/96598\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:27:12","slug":"kate-winslet-on-directing-goodbye-june-starring-helen-mirren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/96598\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Winslet On Directing ‘Goodbye June’ Starring Helen Mirren"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: When I sit down with Kate Winslet<\/a>, she reveals that the very thought of\u00a0the\u00a0Goodbye June<\/a>\u00a0screenplay written by her son Joe Anders<\/a>, 21, being shot by another filmmaker made her feel \u201clike I\u2019d been stabbed in the gut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscar-winning star wanted a stab at directing the film herself.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet has worked with giants of cinema such as James Cameron on\u00a0Titanic\u00a0and\u00a0Avatar\u00a0movies; Stephen Daldry on\u00a0The Reader; Sam Mendes, her ex husband \u2013 and father of Anders \u2013 on\u00a0Revolutionary Road; and the superb work she achieved through collaborations with Francis Lee on\u00a0Ammonite\u00a0and Todd Haynes with\u00a0Mildred Pierce.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet was already set to produce and play a role in\u00a0Goodbye June, a film that her son had begun writing aged 19 while on a screen-writing course, but the idea that she helm it hadn\u2019t been broached until they were in the thick of the development process together.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChrist knows,\u201d the Oscar-winning star cries, \u201cI\u2019ve been on enough film sets to know what works and what doesn\u2019t\u2026 I think that\u2019s something that I know that I can say, and I\u2019ve been around enough actors to, I think have some degree of instinct about what\u2019s helpful and what\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe allows herself to boast that, \u201cYeah, I have had some really great experiences. And I think of wonderful people like Francis Lee, who I learned so much from, and Todd Haynes, who I learned so much from. It\u2019s just a big, vast community of creatives who all chat and share things. And I\u2019ve been part of that community for a very, very long time. And I think it just feels great to have directed my first film in the 50th year of my life as a woman. It feels good, it feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKate Winslet directing a scene in \u2018Goodbye June\u2019. Kimberley French\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet acknowledges how helpful it was to reunite with Lee producer Kate Solomon for Goodbye June.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe and Anders worked closely throughout the whole development process. \u201cAnd we felt good about thinking about going to either studios or networks, so we weren\u2019t sure what we were going to do with it,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the two of them started talking about directors, Winslet disclosed\u00a0that \u201cI suddenly felt like I\u2019d been stabbed in the gut. And I said to him, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t think I can let it go.\u2019 I said, \u2019I don\u2019t think I can give it away, Joe.\u2019 And he said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet told him that \u201cas soon as we give this to another director, it becomes theirs.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s what happens. So I said that I want for us to really feel like we\u2019ve done this. I want to direct it,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey looked at each other \u201cand then that was it\u2026 As I say, you just run at it with massive energy and bring everyone with you. And that\u2019s what I did,\u201d she shrugs.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn assured touch<\/p>\n

\n\tGoodbye June is Winslet\u2019s directorial debut and she brings an assured touch to a film that\u2019s about a beloved matriarch, played\u00a0\u00a0by Helen Mirren<\/a>, the June of the title, and her dysfunctional family, who all just need to step up and sort themselves out over Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s about one particular family but I found it to be a universal piece that sublimely echoes a sense of life as it\u2019s being lived. There are several moments in\u00a0Goodbye June\u00a0that, after seeing an unfinished version, I will forever hold as keepsakes. The film will be released in select UK and U.S. theaters December 12 and on Netflix December 24, so I\u2019m unwilling to give away key spoilers at this early juncture.<\/p>\n

\n\tTimothy Spall is June\u2019s husband and their four children are played by Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, and Winslet as Julia, ostensively the most successful of the four, who\u2019s forever banging heads with Riseborough\u2019s fussy and tricky sister, Molly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L\/R) Andrea Riseborough, Johnny Flynn, Kate Winslet and Timothy Spall in a scene from \u2018Goodbye June\u2019. Kimberley French\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tStephen Merchant, Fisayo Akinade, Jeremy Swift, and Raza Jaffrey also star along with an array of children, some as young as six months.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet says she and Joe put together a wish-list of actors\u00a0as a sort of \u201cencouragement\u201d therapy for her son \u201cbecause of course Joe never actually believed any of it was going to happen.\u201d \u201cHe was like, \u2019Mum, it\u2019s not supposed to be a real thing.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Well, it\u2019s going to be a real thing, and this is what we\u2019re going to do, so let\u2019s literally write down who are our dream people to play these parts\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it was all of those aforementioned actors. \u201cAnd fucking amazingly, they all said \u2018yes\u2019,\u201d says Winslet.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was completely insane, Winslet recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRiseborough was the first person outside of the family to read the Goodbye June script because she and Winslet worked together on\u00a0Lee\u00a0and\u00a0The Regime\u00a0and had become friends, and\u00a0she\u2019d known Anders was writing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet and Mirren were both in David Frankel\u2019s\u00a0Collateral Beauty, although they did not share any scenes in the 2016 production. But Mirren was only available for 16 days out of a 35 day shooting schedule on\u00a0Goodbye June.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was of course a smart move to get Mirren because she\u2019s the film\u2019s anchor; she\u2019s level-headed while family mayhem ensues around her.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd one feels as if one is watching a family, which is because the actors actually inhabit their roles. But also because Winslet, before sending them the script, had conversations with the ensemble\u00a0where she explained that it\u2019s \u201cone of those things where I want us to all be in it together,\u201d and that \u201cwe\u2019ll all share ideas about how this needs to feel and needs to be, and we\u2019ll try things out, and we\u2019ll just look out for each other in that way that families do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoodbye June\u00a0is fictional but in part there are tiny tender threads inspired in part by the big boisterous family Andres was born into.<\/p>\n

\n\tCast sorted, Winslet knew that she had to be prepared if she was to score all bases during the 35-day shoot. \u201cBut it\u2019s hardcore, and you have to be really prepared. That\u2019s why that sort of rehearsal and prep time is so important because you have to at least feel confident in the choices that you\u2019re making and supported by the director with those choices.\u00a0So with that short length of shoot time, you just kind of run at it and all hold hands.\u00a0And that is honestly what we did. And one of the great joys about directing this film was that after having been in this industry for such a long time, you do learn who the great people are when it comes to putting a crew together,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet was able to hire several first time department heads. \u201cWe had wonderful people. And something that I\u2019ve always felt if I ever did direct, is that I\u2019m a huge believer in [the idea that] everyone has to start somewhere. So we had a lot of first time department heads, a first time costume designer and a first time production designer. We\u2019ve got a first time composer, first time writer. I mean, all of these things, it\u2019s so important to keep evolving and keep being open and keep giving, not just giving people opportunities, but letting them know that they absolutely deserve to be in that position and that you\u2019re excited to see everything they do, and that you are there to support them to do their job to the best of their ability\u2026 And so,\u201d she notes, \u201cthat side of being a director, I absolutely adored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother aspect is Winslet\u2019s support of her son. \u201cSo Joe\u2019s always been a really good writer in life. He\u2019s always written really interesting things. And he was forever with a notebook in his back pocket, wherever we would be in any part of the world. At Sunday lunch, at someone\u2019s house, or on holiday, he always had a notebook. And he got a place on a screenwriting course in London, and he was very private about what he was working on and what he was learning. And at the end of the course, he said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve written something and would you read it?\u2019,\u201d adding that \u2018if it\u2019s crap\u2019 his mother should just lie about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, I won\u2019t lie, but I\u2019m also sure that it\u2019s not going to be crap\u2019,\u201d Winslet remembers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs a mother, I\u2019ve spent his whole life reading everything he\u2019s done from things at school to plays he\u2019d written to monologues he\u2019d written to poems. I know his work, and this is what he wrote. And immediately I read it and I said to him, I really think that we should make this into a film,\u201d she adds proudly.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJoe Anders<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n

\n\tWinslet\u2019s film, I feel, will unlock some of the painful stuff from our past. We chat about it some more. \u201cWell, that\u2019s the thing,\u201d she observes, \u201cis that you bury stuff, the things that are hard to remember because they were painful at the time. You bury and you put into a special box of either memories or things that just caused anguish in those moments. And this was really a film about making sure that we were able to just gently turn over every single one of those stones that you so often just put in your pocket and think he\u2019s going to just stay there for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: When I sit down with Kate Winslet, she reveals that the very thought of\u00a0the\u00a0Goodbye June\u00a0screenplay written by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[47636,6491,96,47637,15573,47638,47639,47640,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-96598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-breaking-baz","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-goodbye-june","tag-helen-mirren","tag-joe-anders","tag-kate-winslet","tag-toni-colette","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}