Kate Winslet Says It Took 2 Years to Get Her Natural Hair Color Back After Going Red for Titanic
20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
Kate Winslet has rarely strayed from her natural blonde hair color over the years, but we'll never forget the copper red hue she donned in the film that earned the actress an Oscar nomination and made her a household name.
In a new interview with ELLE for the magazine's Legends Only series, the Titanic star, now 47, revealed her iconic character in the 1997 blockbuster was never supposed to have red hair — but Winslet was all for the bold color change.
"Rose was never described as having red hair, and I remember the first conversation with [director] Jim Cameron about her hair color," she told ELLE. "He asked, 'How would you feel if we did something really bold with her hair?' He wanted it to be red, but an intense, unusual red, and I was very excited about that."
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After filming wrapped, it took the star "almost two years" to get her natural hair color back.
20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Winslet also said achieving Rose's curly style was a challenge: "My hair isn't naturally wavy, so it had to be curled every day and was impossible to maintain because there was water all around us."
"We were filming in a series of tanks, so the water was always in the air, and it would create a problem for everybody's hair," she continued.
Speaking to British Vogue about her hair journey, the new L'Oréal Paris Global Ambassador said she experimented with at-home color twice during lockdown last year.
"What's great about L'Oréal's Préferénce [Winslet is a shade 9.1] is that it's hard to go wrong because the color works so well. I did color my own hair twice during lockdown last year – just a little bit through the top because my own hair is a brown color," she explained. "Too much root and I just look really tired. It went well and it's easy to follow the instructions."
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The mom of three (daughter Mia, 20, and sons Joe, 17, and Bear, 7) also shared that she's become the "parent with all the cool hair dye."
Frazer Harrison/Getty Kate Winslet
"My son and his friends are also constantly wanting to change their hair color so I often find that if he has them round, they'll be like 'Mum, can we dye Jake's hair purple?' I'm terrible and tell them to phone their mums to check if it's okay," she said.
"How did I become the parent with all the cool hair dye in my house? But that's us and it's partly because I have a daughter and she's also always experimenting with hair colors and realizing she bought the wrong one, so my son gets her cast offs," Winslet continued. "Absolutely hilarious."
