Kate Winslet was forced to relive her mother's death while filming heartbreaking scenes for her new movie Goodbye June
Winslet, 50, made her directorial debut by taking charge of the drama, which was written by her 21-year-old son Joe Anders and follows four siblings who gather around their dying mother when she takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
14 December 2025
The actress has now revealed it forced her to reexamine the emotions she felt when she lost her mother Sally in 2017 after a battle with ovarian cancer. She told The Times newspaper: "There were days when I thought: 'Oh, I’m living through it again'.
"I had to get across the monotony that comes when somebody has cancer for a long time. You become numb.
"I’ve gone through those glimmers of hope that are then dashed. People say: 'There’s a new chemo …’ or: 'There is a trial' ...
"You get angry, then hopeful, then sad and then hopeful again. And then you just plateau."
The story written by Winslet's son was partly inspired by the death of his grandmother and the actress explained she hopes the movie will help other families dealing with grief.
She added: "I suppose this film is our way of saying: 'Make sure you’ve said everything you need to'. Because this country is useless at dealing with grief.
"All we know is that someone dies and you bury them in a mahogany box or they’re cremated.
"There’s no sense of ceremony about seeing someone off. But some people just die. I know somebody who held her dying mother and screamed: 'No, not now! I mean, hell."
In the film, June is played Dame Helen Mirren and Winslet previously revealed the Oscar-winner broke her own "personal rules" to star in the movie because she had vowed never to play cancer patients or dementia sufferers on screen.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Winslet said: "When I was telling her [Mirren] about the film she said: ‘I am going to stop you because I have two personal rules. I will not play anyone with dementia or anyone with cancer.’
" She still asked to see the script, and then she sent me an email saying she was breaking her own rule because it was such a wonderful project."
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