Kate Winslet: ‘I think on some level Woody is a woman, he’s very in touch with that side’
Winslet thinks Woody is a woman: “I think on some level Woody is a woman,” Winslet jokes as she ponders the question of just how the filmmaker continually creates such memorable female characters. “I just think he’s very in touch with that side of himself. He understands the female characters he creates exceptionally well,. His female characters are always so rich and large and honest in terms of how they’re feeling and he just knows how to write dialogue for them to communicate all that.”
She didn’t want to be too influenced by Woody’s Tennessee Williams influences: “We’ve seen such extraordinary performances – particularly from women – in Woody’s films and I wanted to join those great women but only by making her my own person and staying away from any cliches.”
Woody Allen on “the biggest misconception” about who he really is: “People think I am an intellectual because I wear these glasses and they think I am an artist because my films lose money so it’s a great image but it’s not me. I am the person that is home with a beer in front of the football game on television, not upstairs with a book on Danish philosophy.”
Woody credit his wife Soon-Yi Previn for inspiring him to continually write strong female characters. “She’s got a very domineering personality and is hyper competent and I’m hyper incompetent and can’t work the TV set without calling her into the room. She handles all the money and I get a small allowance of $35 every couple of weeks from her and I’m fine with that because she takes a huge amount of tedious responsibility off me and I’m confident she knows what she’s doing and I don’t!”
[From SMH]