Kate Winslet’s ‘Regime’ Is Not a Dictatorship — Behind the Scenes, at Least

 This image released by HBO shows Kate Winslet in a scene from "The Regime." (HBO via AP)
This image released by HBO shows Kate Winslet in a scene from "The Regime." (HBO via AP)
TT
20

Kate Winslet’s ‘Regime’ Is Not a Dictatorship — Behind the Scenes, at Least

 This image released by HBO shows Kate Winslet in a scene from "The Regime." (HBO via AP)
This image released by HBO shows Kate Winslet in a scene from "The Regime." (HBO via AP)

Kate Winslet is running things — on and off the set of her new TV show, "The Regime."

In the HBO show premiering Sunday, she plays Elena Vernham — also known as The Chancellor, the ruler of a fictional country in Europe, possibly near Poland. Winslet, who is also an executive producer on the show, says she's never been offered a character like this "in her life."

"I’ve never read a script like this before. I’ve never laughed so much at the material that was in front of me, as we did every single day, and I really just felt this was an exciting, challenging, terrifying opportunity for me to step totally out of my comfort zone," she says.

As the show’s worshipped leader, she came face to face with many huge artworks of herself.

"Initially I thought to myself, oh God, that’s so brilliant. I’ve got to have one. And then I got so sick of looking at them that towards the end I just wanted to burn them all," Winslet laughs.

Sometimes, the production team would neglect to warn her of a large, sequined image of her face on set.

"Funnily enough I don’t like looking at me. It’s not a comfortable place to be. So yes, there was a, there was a lot of being confronted with that, this heightened version of myself," she says. "I just had to kind of roll with it."

That’s one of the many major differences between the star and the dictator — who loves to be loved by her people, addressing them regularly and also, occasionally, serenading them with a song ("Santa Baby").

Among her loyal subjects: Guillaume Gallienne, as her husband Nicholas; Andrea Riseborough, who runs the palace, and Danny Webb as one of her many ministers, subservient to her bizarre pronouncements. Martha Plimpton plays a US senator and Hugh Grant is Elena's political rival.

Things in the country are running smoothly — well, as smoothly as they can while Elena deals with her latest hypochondria, paranoia and abandonment issues. Then she hires a soldier, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, in her fight against tiny deadly spores — and begins a relationship with repercussions that shake the regime, and the country, to its core, moving her battles to a much larger scale.

The dark comedy, from "Succession" writer Will Tracy, is billed as a twisted love story about two people who should never have fallen in love, which is "exactly why everybody should watch it," says Schoenaerts.

"The world is full of people that should have never met," he says.

Luckily, off screen, the results were less damaging with lots of laughter on set, Schoenaerts recalls: "It gives us some relief because, obviously, sometimes we really have to go (to dark) places."

And it was much less of a dictatorship than on screen.

"She leads by example," Schoenaerts says of Winslet. "She’s always on time, always prepared, always kind, generous, open and extremely sharp. And she’s a lot of fun to work with."

"The Regime" directors Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs both agree that a Winslet set is more like a welcoming theater company.

"It did feel like that," says Winslet, who has appeared in amateur theatrical productions.

Gallienne remembers that Winslet would take time out to talk to any new cast members so that they felt comfortable and part of the team.

"She’s very direct, very honest, but very simple and very kind," he says. "As she says, you know, learn your lines, focus and deliver."

Winslet says that she takes being number one on the call sheet very seriously and tries to lead by example, to "lift the energy every day and just deliver it and show up and, and really be there for everybody."

"As I’m getting older I feel responsibility and gratitude, you know, both simultaneously," Winslet explains. "It’s a really privileged position to be in. And I really respect it."

The self-centered chancellor is a far cry from any real-life figure, if you were wondering, with Winslet describing her character's theatrics as "so enormous and delicious."

"And her hysteria at times, and how volatile she is, how vulnerable she is. I mean, I just couldn’t compare her to anyone," she says.

"I couldn’t say there were things that I actually liked about her," adds Winslet, "but there were things that really just made me laugh."



Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

This file photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows a man sitting next to the character No Face from the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" during a media preview for "The World of Studio Ghibli's Animation Exhibition Bangkok" before the public opening on July 1, in Central World shopping mall in Bangkok.(AFP)
This file photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows a man sitting next to the character No Face from the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" during a media preview for "The World of Studio Ghibli's Animation Exhibition Bangkok" before the public opening on July 1, in Central World shopping mall in Bangkok.(AFP)
TT
20

Studio Ghibli Marks 40 Years, but Future Looks Uncertain

This file photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows a man sitting next to the character No Face from the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" during a media preview for "The World of Studio Ghibli's Animation Exhibition Bangkok" before the public opening on July 1, in Central World shopping mall in Bangkok.(AFP)
This file photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows a man sitting next to the character No Face from the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away" during a media preview for "The World of Studio Ghibli's Animation Exhibition Bangkok" before the public opening on July 1, in Central World shopping mall in Bangkok.(AFP)

Japan's Studio Ghibli turns 40 this month with two Oscars and legions of fans young and old won over by its complex plots and fantastical hand-drawn animation.

But the future is uncertain, with latest hit "The Boy and the Heron" likely -- but not certainly -- the final feature from celebrated co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, now 84.

The studio behind the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" has become a cultural phenomenon since Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata established it in 1985.

Its popularity has been fueled of late by a second Academy Award in 2024 for "The Boy and the Heron", starring Robert Pattinson, and by Netflix streaming Ghibli movies around the world.

In March, the internet was flooded with pictures in its distinctively nostalgic style after the release of OpenAI's newest image generator, raising questions over copyright.

The newly opened Ghibli Park has also become a major tourist draw for central Japan's Aichi region.

Julia Santilli, a 26-year-old from Britain living in northern Japan, "fell in love with Ghibli" after watching the 2001 classic "Spirited Away" as a child.

"I started collecting all the DVDs," she told AFP.

Ghibli stories are "very engaging and the artwork is stunning", said another fan, Margot Divall, 26.

"I probably watch 'Spirited Away' about 10 times a year still."

- 'Whiff of death' -

Before Ghibli, most cartoons in Japan, known as anime, were made for children.

But Miyazaki and Takahata, both from "the generation that knew war", included darker elements that appeal to adults, Miyazaki's son Goro told AFP.

"It's not all sweet -- there's also a bitterness and things like that which are beautifully intertwined in the work," he said, describing a "whiff of death" in the films.

For younger people who grew up in peacetime, "it is impossible to create something with the same sense, approach and attitude," Goro said.

Even "My Neighbor Totoro," with its cuddly forest creatures, is in some ways a "scary" movie that explores the fear of losing a sick mother, he explained.

Susan Napier, a professor at Tufts University in the United States and author of "Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art", agrees.

"In Ghibli, you have ambiguity, complexity and also a willingness to see that the darkness and light often go together" unlike good-versus-evil US cartoons, she said.

The post-apocalyptic "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" -- considered the first Ghibli film despite its release in 1984 -- has no obvious villain, for example.

The movie featuring an independent princess curious about giant insects and a poisonous forest felt "so fresh" and a change from "a passive woman... having to be rescued," Napier said.

- Natural world -

Studio Ghibli films also depict a universe where humans connect deeply with nature and the spirit world.

A case in point was 1997's "Princess Mononoke", distributed internationally by Disney.

The tale of a girl raised by a wolf goddess in a forest threatened by humans is "a masterpiece -- but a hard movie," Napier said.

It's a "serious, dark and violent" film appreciated more by adults, which "was not what US audiences had anticipated with a movie about a princess."

Ghibli films "have an environmentalist and animistic side, which I think is very appropriate for the contemporary world with climate change," she added.

Miyuki Yonemura, a professor at Japan's Senshu University who studies cultural theories on animation, said watching Ghibli movies is like reading literature.

"That's why some children watch Totoro 40 times," she said, adding that audiences "discover something new every time."

- French connection -

Miyazaki and Takahata, who died in 2018, could create imaginative worlds because of their openness to other cultures, Yonemura said.

Foreign influences included writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery and animator Paul Grimault, both French, and Canadian artist Frederic Back, who won an Oscar for his animation "The Man Who Planted Trees".

Takahata studying French literature at university "was a big factor," Yonemura said.

"Both Miyazaki and Takahata read a lot," she said. "That's a big reason why they excel at writing scripts and creating stories."

Miyazaki has said he was inspired by several books for "Nausicaa", including the 12th-century Japanese tale "The Lady who Loved Insects", and Greek mythology.

Studio Ghibli will not be the same after Miyazaki stops creating animation, "unless similar talent emerges," Yonemura said.

Miyazaki is "a fantastic artist with such a visual imagination" while both he and Takahata were "politically progressive," Napier said.

"The more I study, the more I realize this was a unique cultural moment," she said.

"It's so widely loved that I think it will carry on," said Ghibli fan Divall.

"As long as it doesn't lose its beauty, as long as it carries on the amount of effort, care and love," she said.