We haven’t had much news from Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews. USA Today has the first interview with Kate on the set of Divergent.
Below is the very first look at Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews.
CHICAGO — As Kate Winslet descends the stairs in the Hall of Choosing during a scene from the action-adventure tale Divergent, she carries a slim briefcase in front of her, which has multiple uses.
Given that she’s wearing a sharp, lab-coat-inspired executive suit, the accessory further projects the image of a true leader as Winslet’s character serenely inspects the assembled masses.
The interview with Kate Winslet about
Jeanine Matthews starts here:
As soon as director Neil Burger yells “cut!,” Winslet employs the container for another use — as a fan on the stifling set of Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, which has broken air conditioners. As she flaps, she reveals that the case also disguises a baby bump — she announced in early June that she’s having her third child, the first with husband Ned Rocknroll.
“I’m holding up fine. I’m pregnant, but it’s not at the point where it becomes impossible,” says Winslet, 37, relaxing at a conference table with bags of nearly melted ice on her feet. “Sometimes you just have to roll with it.”
“That’s the whole point of Jeanine,” Winslet says. “She walks down the corridor and sort of just leaves this vapor trail. I knew I had to bring that intimidation.”
“I’m no idiot. The idea went through my head that I have never played a baddie before,” she says. “I was almost kind of surprised.”
If you don’t know much about Jeanine of Erudite you can learn more about her here:
Jeanine is the protector of a futuristic dystopian society based in Chicago, in which the population is divided into five factions. As the leader of the Erudite, or intelligent group, Jeanine is also the story’s antagonist.
Winslet’s character adopts a positively chilly demeanor when she meets hero Tris Prior (The Descendants’ Shailene Woodley) and her family in a scene depicting the day Tris will choose her faction.
The role gives the Oscar winner (best actress for 2008’s The Reader) the opportunity to play her first screen villain.
More of Kate talking about playing Jeanine in Divergent:
The pregnancy helped maintain the intimidation factor, since Winslet came into the shoot late. She used that distance from her co-stars to her advantage by keeping herself slightly aloof initially.
“I wanted to break it and say, ‘It’s OK, I’m really fun. I promise.’ ” she says. “But I thought, just for today, I’d let them think that I am a complete bitch.”
Director Neil Burger also talks Kate Winslet as Jeanine:
Burger says Winslet is game for every aspect of the shoot, even volunteering to perform a small fall in her character’s fight scene. (He used a stunt double.) Wardrobe changes were needed to accommodate the pregnancy, and Winslet’s time on set is closely managed.
“Obviously, we have to be careful, and the way we shoot her changes things,” Burger says. “But there’s a way to do it so we stay off the fact she is pregnant.”
Even the die-hard fans of the series, who have nitpicked about things such as Woodley’s hair color, have been “exploding with joy” with the news of Winslet’s casting, Roth says. Watching from the monitor, Roth feels Winslet even exceeds the hype.
“Kate has gone with a very subtle, even well-meaning villain. She’s not a mustache-twirling Disney type,” she says. “She brings the menace in a very quiet way.”
I don’t know about you, but I am loving the first look at Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews!
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You can see Kate as Jeanine in Divergent in March 21st, 2014.
Divergent Faction 