Kate Winslet never lets go of James Cameron.
Twenty-five years after breaking box office records with 1997’s ‘Titanic,’ the Oscar-winning actress and director are reunited with ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (in theaters now), the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s ‘Avatar.’
In the dazzling sci-fi epic, Winslet plays the sharp-witted Ronal, an alien queen and healer who leads the oceanic Metkayina clan. When humans return to the planet Pandora and begin devastating the forests, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family take shelter with Ronal’s tribe, who teach the Sully brood how to fight underwater and communicate.
Winslet, 47, says she was “immediately on board” when Cameron approached her about the role, which was done entirely with motion capture technology.
“I’m a mom now and he knows who I am as a parent and as an actor,” says Winslet. “And he certainly knows how far I can be pushed and what challenges I like to take on, so it made sense to me why he would consider I might be interested in Ronald. Because that’s who she is: a mother and a leader in life with integrity and truth, and also physically very robust and resilient.”