Actress Kate Winslet said that directing Goodbye June felt like “reliving” the death of her mother, who passed away in 2017.
The actress opened up about the emotional impact of the film while speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast.
“It wasn’t cathartic,” she said. “There were days when I was literally reliving what happened when I lost my mum. I would sit quietly behind our focus puller and just cry”.
She said the environment on set opened up conversations about grief among the cast and crew, noting that people were often relieved to talk about loss.
The drama follows four adult siblings and their father as they come together while their mother’s health declines.
Helen Mirren played the family matriarch, June, while Winslet played one of her daughters, Julia. The cast also includes Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, Andrea Riseborough, and Timothy Spall.
Winslet added that stepping behind the camera at 50 after years of watching male actors smoothly transition into directing made her proud.
“I felt proud of myself, as a woman, at this time of my life, I just turned 50, and to be doing something that I watched so many men do before and I’d seen male actors transition into directing and have done really successfully and largely without any judgment or scrutiny, and it’s just not the same for girls”.
“It feels like for you personally, not only is this an amazing challenge for you to make that switch, but also you’re doing it on behalf of women to help this cultural shift in the very male-dominated Hollywood directing scene”.
Goodbye June, written by her son Joe Anders, opens in select UK cinemas on 12 December and arrives on Netflix on Christmas Eve.