Kate Winslet Couldn’t Get Over How ‘Trashy’ She Looked Playing Her Horrific Character in ‘Triple 9’

Actor Kate Winslet has played a variety of roles ranging from movies like Titanic to Little Children. But Triple 9 saw Winslet playing one of the worst characters she’s ever played.

Kate Winslet had trouble finding anything redeemable about her ‘Triple 9’ character

Triple 9 was very different from the usual roles audiences were accustomed to seeing Winslet in. The film saw her playing a ruthless Russian mafia boss. The fact that the character was such a huge departure from Winslet’s usual characters was what first attracted her to the feature.

But Winslet admitted that the Russian mafia boss was one of the few film roles she had difficulty connecting to. Especially thanks to the character’s wardrobe, which couldn’t have been any more unflattering for the Oscar-winner.

“I certainly couldn’t empathise with anything she wore or her hair! She had to look as though she believed she was put-together and well-dressed and a woman of wealth, when actually she looked like a trashy slut! Nails just a little bit too long, the colour not really that nice, the hair just a bit too high, two inches of re-growth, red boots with red tights, with a red coat. But it was fun, it was really fun,” she once said according to Contact Music.

As vile as her character was on the inside and out, Winslet clung to whatever she could to find common ground with the role.

“She is an outright villain, absolutely evil through and through,” she said. “She’s pretty horrific! So I looked for moments where we got to see a woman who was capable of being a a wife and a mother. That helped me anchor the role in something. But it was mostly being quite mean to people.”

Having children made Kate Winslet want to star in ‘Triple 9’

Apart from how unique the role was, Winslet asserted Triple 9 offered her just the kind of character she needed after giving birth.

“Also, when I made this film I had just had a baby. And I have to be honest: just from an acting standpoint, I wanted a short, sharp jolt back into reality. I wanted to feel terrified, I wanted to feel out of my comfort zone and to work with a great group of people,” she said.

Ironically, however, playing the vicious mafia villain made Winslet want to return home to her children as soon as possible.

“Playing Irina was a short, sharp jolt of reality, that’s for sure,” she said. “Afterwards, all I wanted to do was go home and sing nursery rhymes. I wanted to be a good person again, you know?”

Still, her character’s brutality didn’t stave Winslet off from playing sinister characters.

“It didn’t feel comfortable in any way shape or form,” she said. “But yeah, I’d love to!”

‘Triple 9’ wasn’t Kate Winslet’s only villain role

Before Triple 9, Winslet was already a bit accustomed to playing evil characters after appearing in the Divergent franchise.

“It was a big, fun, exciting, new challenge for me,” she once told ET about playing a vile character.

But she considered her part in Triple 9 to be much worse than her Divergent counterpart.

“She’s the nastiest, most irredeemable individual I have ever had the pleasure of portraying and, Yes, it’s something I’ve often toyed with. It’s not from a place of dying to be the villain for the sake of it – the whole ‘baddies have more fun.’ It was fascinating to get into the mindset of someone like Irina, why and how they become who they become,” she said in an interview with Together.