Here are some photos of Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth at the TIFF premiere of The Dressmaker on Monday night. Kate’s dress was Badgley Mischka and it was… okay. Her body looks great, I’ll say that, but I’m ambivalent on the dress. Now… I’ve gotten in trouble before for claiming that Kate has, at times, looked Botoxed to hell. During her last pregnancy, her face really softened and I sort of forgot about it. But nowadays? Um, I think she’s hitting the ‘Tox again. There’s something about her brows and her forehead, it’s like the Nicole Kidman thing. Too tight? Not responding to the lower half of her face? Something like that.
Kate is currently 39 years old, soon to be 40 in October. Her costar and on-screen love interest is 25-year-old Liam “The Hot One” Hemsworth. I really don’t care about the age difference as far as on-screen romances go, and I’ll admit to enjoying the idea of a nearly-40-year-old woman breaking off a piece of Young Hemsworth. The problem, perhaps, is that the story of The Dressmaker has the two actors playing characters that are supposed to be close in age. Um…? Seriously? Here are Kate and Liam discussing the film with Salon:
Winslet on whether the film is feminist: “I think it’s quite dangerous to kind of label things in that way. The word feminism, being a feminist, they’re both strong profound statements that can speak huge volumes, and I’m not necessarily sure that I would apply that to this film, it’s just f–king cool that you’ve got this amazingly strong woman at the heart of this story and that she happens to get revenge at the end, it’s just super great.”
Hemsworth on playing Winslet’s love interest: “It was something I was sort of worried about in the beginning. I felt like I was possibly too young to play this part because in this film we’re seen as the same age, around the same age… But onscreen — Kate is such a beautiful woman and I have a beard in the film so I look quite a bit older, so I don’t think it’s an issue at all… She looks really young and I look weathered and old.”
Winslet on the age difference: “Isn’t that great, he’s about five years old. It didn’t really occur to me actually at all, I really didn’t know how old he is, I truly didn’t. I think it’s all about how you feel alongside that person, I didn’t particularly feel as though he was particularly younger than me or I was older than him. I felt more experienced than him in terms of career and in terms of the amount of years that I’ve been doing it for in comparison to him, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable or that or awkward at all. I didn’t have a sort of fist-pumping moment of hey look at me with the younger actor. I didn’t feel like that. He was the right person for the role.”
Again, if you want to make a movie where a 40-year-old lady has hot sex with a 25-year-old Hemsworth, more power to you, God bless and Godspeed. But of course people are going to have some issues with the whole idea that a 25 year old and a 39 year old are supposed to, magically, be THE SAME AGE within the film. It goes the other way too, of course: you can make Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper on-screen love interests, but don’t try to convince us that they’re the same age. It’s not happening.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I love Kate but her style is a bit on the frump. Thou this isn’t the first time she’s seduced a younger man on screen – what was the age difference with her lead in The Reader (the guy who played the younger Ralph Fiennes character)?
But hey its a Hemsworth – no complaints and he gets his shirt off.
Are you joking? She looks great!
Yes , she looks wonderful. I think she is one of the most beautiful actresses.
I can see her playing the role. No big deal.
+1. She looks absolutely stunning and not botoxy or tweaked at all. Whatever she is doing, she is doing it right.
The Reader was like that in the novel though? Hanna was 36 and Michael 15. That is very clear from the get go. I haven’t read The Dressmaker, is this the case in the novel?
I’m all for age appropriate actors being cast for roles and a stop to this casting 20 year old women against men in their 40’s and 50’s because women aren’t considered sexy in Hollyweird past a certain age, but if it’s based on a source material I’d rather they kept it as is.
I read it a long time ago and then forgot about it – only to realize I must have read it after watching the trailer, but as far as I remember, they were supposed to have known each other as children. She was made to leave the town when she was 10 and he was one of the few nice local kids she knew. And then she came back some 20 years later, so it would make them both around 30. He plays a slightly older character and she plays a woman a decade younger than herself, but I don’t have a problem with that. I probably would have if they were supposed to play real characters or it the movie was some regular, real-life drama (like American Hustle), but it will have a supernatural feel to it, which makes it even easier to overlook the details like this one.
I really enjoyed the book. I’m a sucker for a town life setting in novel,full of great characters and especially those set a past time period. This novel made me laugh and had it’s serious moments too. I only read it after seeing the shorts for the trailer and still didn’t visualise Liam has teddy. I had an older more rugged man in mind.i kept seeing him as another character ( William) instead. But reading and imagination are a personal & unique thing, and I’m still really looking forward to the movie.
Since 90% of Hollywood films have actresses in their 20’s with actors in their 40’s and 50’s, I have no problem with Kate and Liam. My problem would be that he is not good as an actor. Hope he learned a thing or two from Kate.
Agree! Go Kate.
But DOR always casts Jennifer Lawrence to act a 10 years older character
Not just ten years older, her latest has her playing a 40 year old mother of two. That’s ridiculous but no one is batting an eye at that.
Kate is a great actress who looks fantastic. There’s is so much sexism in Hollywood. If they are good actors that’s all that matters. They’re not playing themselves, they’re playing a role.
Joy is mostly in her 20s in that movie (she will be 27 for most of it). SLP was aged down for Jen once she got the role. American Hustle was the only role she was too young for.
I’m not sure how many times this has to be stated.
I’m offended.
Didn’t she and Emma Thompson make a statement about refusing to have plastic surgery? I guess that doesn’t apply to Botox, because I agree, she looks like she’s had some.
She’s got a great body; the dress looks cheap.
The difference is Emma Thompson generally does what she says.Miss Kate however is often mouthing off about something and then later doing the opposite
‘Ordinary Kate’..and epithet from her first marriage ,has often a short memory and much of the press play along and do not bring up the inconsistency
I would not be surprised at all….as she now considers herself a ‘movie star’…..and HAS to do it!
Not liking the dress or the tox. Good for her I guess for seducing the younger man on screen. Seems like a strange pairing.
Again, I have NO PROBLEM with Winslet seducing a Hemsworth on screen. I have a problem with the idea that the characters are supposed to be the same age.
Maybe they meet in the middle and both are supposed to be 32-33?
I agree, she looks 15 years older than him. They may make a fantastic onscreen pair, but don’t try to convince me they’re the same age. I didn’t even think she and Leo looked the same age in Titanic, and it turns out he’s older. Kate isn’t Amy Adams. She can’t play younger.
My hubby is 6 months younger than me and has always looked a decade older. I look 5 years younger than our age and he looks at least 5 years older. Helmsworth has a baby face and Winslet has always looked like a woman… just like in Titanic where she def looked more mature than Leo.
It made sense in Titanic because she was a 16 year old “lady” groomed to marry and run a house by 17. I could see that working in this film too, if she’s a hard 33 and he’s a soft country boy 33.
She looks wonderful. I saw her in A Little Chaos with Matthias Schoenaerts and she seemed really tired and unfit in that film. (She’s a heavy smoker and if you pay attention, you can see it in her interviews as she’s ever so slightly out of breath.) Matthias is 37 and Kate looked at least five years older than him. So I don’t think this supposedly-equal-age pairing with Liam is going to be convincing. Nothing wrong with a younger-man-older-woman thing; just she doesn’t look THAT young and Liam doesn’t look THAT old. So many movies casting the wrong leads because they want a big name.
True , she was pregnant while filming Little chaos and it shows . She looked very very tired to me.And as her boobs looked gigantic, she looked matronly too.
But from the trailer, she looks very different- and younger in the The Dressmaker.
I don’t think they look the same though, even if Liam grew a beard to seem older.
PS: she actually stopped smoking some years ago . But yeah she was a heavy smoker for many years.
She looks amazing. If it’s ‘tox it isn’t near Kidman-level. Not loving the dress. Reminds me of a prom dress I wore in the 90s.
Hot pairing, but I can’t see them as the same age. It’s hotter to me because of the age difference, actually, being on the verge of 40 myself.
A few reviewers have noted the age thing and it’s interesting because they’ve said how refreshing it is to see an older woman/younger man … but they’ve also noted that it makes absolutely no sense in the plot because it’s important to the story that they knew each other as kids before she was sent away. Kind of like if, in Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley and Jennifer were supposed to know each other from high school. Sounds like they should have picked someone older than Hemsworth, and Snook too because her character also knew the main character from school. Ageing up a few people around Winslet would have been less distracting story wise.
The film sounds a bit all over the place unfortunately: tone is messy and it can’t decide what genre it is. A pity as the trailer got me excited and Winslet’s Australian accent is excellent.
Kate in Holy Smoke and Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate did the best Aussie accents by non-Aussies I’ve ever heard. Aside, Cumberbatch’s accent was slightly harder because Julian Assange has that slightly clipped Aussie accent with the more precise diction. Both 10/10. Miley Cyrus did a recent one (she pretended to be an Aussie journalist) and lots of people said it was good, but I caught some slips. And Meryl Streep in that Lindy Chamberlain film was also outstanding, but her accent was broad and exaggerated and possibly easier to do than the standard accent (Kate in Holy Smoke).
I saw the movie the other day and I didn’t even think of their age difference in real life because, you know, it’s a movie, fake personas pretend amd such things. He did look older and besides, I don’t even know how old he is in real life (as many others in the audience I’m sure). On screen they didn’t look like having big age difference, so it didn’t distract me from the story. The movie itself is not a masterpiece but has some interesting moments and was not difficult to watch. Kate looked radiant on the carpet, live, and no, she doesn’t have Botox, simply goes through a number of hydrating and peeling procedures before a festival round, as most actors and not only (I do it after each summer, like now). It leaves your face like a baby bottom but doesn’t last as long as laser, needs to be repeated in a month or two, which is not aroblem for her.There is more than Botox in tne world of cosmetic procedures tnese days.
Which hydrating/peeling procedures do you use? I want to try some, and there are so many out there. Not sure where to start.
He could pass for 30, and even that’s pushing it slightly.
I’ve heard the movie praised as the best bad movie at TIFF. That’s hilarious.
Yea the movie isn’t good lol. I wanted to like it because I love Kate and lord knows Liam has yet to have a good movie he stars in. But nope wasn’t great.
With the right lighting and makeup they could both pass for early 30s; happens all the time in films. Kates body looks amazing and I love the dress!
I remember people complaining that she looked like Leo’s mother in Titanic, actually. At least here there’s more foundation for the complaint. I don’t care, because it happens so often the other way. I am more side-eying her for the feminism comments – that a strong female character in a Hollywood movie is nothing to do with feminism, because that’s all about some deep special scariness, not the day to day demeaning, denigating and disadvantaging of women which is so very apparent in the movie industry.
She’s had botox – the eyebrows lift in that telltale way. But she looks good with it.
I don’t buy this “Well Hollywood routinely casts young actresses opposite actors in their 40s, so yay for Kate and Liam!” argument. If it is inappropriate and unconvincing in one direction, then it is also inappropriate and unconvincing in the other direction. It’s asymmetric to think otherwise.
Anyway, I’m not bothered by age-casting as long as it looks believable onscreen. For instance I thought Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton look great as husband and wife in Only Lovers Left Alive, despite some 20 years of age difference between them. Unfortunately I think Kate and Liam do not pass off as a couple who are similar in age; she definitely looks older than him.
I’ve always liked Kate until she started the double-faced, hypocrite “crusade” against botox & Co. while she’s clearly doing it herself. I remember there were a bunch of British actresses that in a not really subtle way tried to make it looks like they, the Brits, were a high brow, classier and intellectual counterpart to their American fellow actresses, because of their abuse of botox and cosmetic procedures. Like making up an inexistent war and bringing up, once again, the supposed intellectual and style superiority of Brits. Ha. And she never admitted that she’s doing botox and fillers like crazy herself. Hypocrite.
I agree with you Kaiser, I have a problem with them supposedly playing the same age when clearly they’re not (no shade on Kate), but then again I rather see a leading lady of her expertise than a JLaw-BCoop combo. Plus, if I was her I’d secretly be jumping for joy at having a go with a younger man 😉
I remember watching The Reader and The Holiday and noticing deep creases in her forehead (it’s just so rare to see real forheads in film)! She has ‘toxed that natural forehead away. It’s easy to find stills from the films online. No doubt she’s frozen.
I wish Hollywood would cast age-appropriate actors for characters of either sex. It sounds like the age difference is a problem in terms of the plot. Yeah, Kate “cosmetic surgery is the devil” Winslet is Botoxed to within an inch of her life. And when did Liam become the “hot” Hemsworth? Because no.
^THIS
Because certain people on this site have issues with Chris (and his wife), hence taking any chance they can to slight him.
Sorry, but he looks like her son. Sure they both look great and attractive, but she clearly looks a lot older than him.
WTF were the producers thinking…
It happens all the time with men being cast alongside much younger women so I have no problems with this.
I don’t see the issue. He was being aged up a little, she aged down a little, it’s reasonable that they could meet in the middle. It’s not like Jennifer Lawrence and Clint Eastwood here, it’s reasonable that these two people could be within the same sphere of age.
The hot Hemsworth? Uh, no! Not even close. She looks great and they do not remotely look like they could have been children at the same time.
I see she’s been working on her face again. I wouldn’t care if she didn’t lie about it.
Wow, Kate Winslet is one beautiful woman, I dare say she’s the most beautiful out there IMO. She’s right up there with Jolie except Kate’s body is way better.
So is she supposed to be like 30 in the film or something? :/
Yeah, no way her and Liam could pass for the same age. I have no problem with them making a film where a 40 year old woman seduces a 25 year old men (I have a problem with people thinking it’s groundbreaking and new, though, because it really isnt). But having them pass as high school crushes? No way.
That always bothers me. It bothered me in SLP and it bothered me in that dumb Hansel and Gretel film where Jeremy Renner could’ve easily passed for Gemma Arterton’s dad.
I’ve seen the trailer and honestly thought his character was supposed to be a lot younger and less refined than Kate’s. No way Liam looks the same age as Kate. (Not even Chris Hemsworth could pass for a 40 year old.) This reminds me of that Jennifer Lawrence thing. They could both star in a movie playing a couple celebrating their 50 year old marriage or something, because they’re totally not too young for that, lol.
There’s 50 year old male actors playing against 20 year old actresses in movies all the time and to be that’s ridiculous. So this doesn’t bother me at all.
They should have cast two actors close in age. Kate is beautiful but I feel always looked older than her age and Liam looks his age or could pass for younger. The fact the characters had been childhood friends makes it awkward because they don’t look similar ages.
Like other posters if it was an older woman younger guy dynamic it would have worked!
Kate looks ‘mature’ -no offence here- I don’t know if it’s because of botox or just genes, but even with a beard there’s no way Liam will ook her age as her. Come on! It’s great that there is this ‘disregard’ about age difference, when a woman is older, but it’s not believable. And viceversa.