Kate Winslet: Back With a New Festive Film 20 Years After ‘The Holiday’ | This Morning

are joining us now. What a lovely lovely film. Extraordinary film. It's about love, life, family, the messy bits, the good bits, the humorous bit. I sat there on my own watching it which it doesn't happen very often to be honest and I just sat there slowly weeping but enjoying every single moment and actually getting some form of I don't know it was just like emotional reassurance from it at the same time. It was beautiful. That's really lovely. We have found that quite a few people seem to be saying that they're finding it cathartic and uplifting and very funny because it's got lots of humor in it as well which I think is really important especially when you're making a story about family who are going through something challenging you know you've got to have that that brevity as well. There's an extraordinary relationship between all of the family within the film. Just describe a little bit Kate about Goodbye June what the essence of the story is. So Goodbye June is it is a story about a family who are a messy group of complex individuals and slightly misfiring in terms of communication and suddenly they are all thrown together close to Christmas to deal with the impending loss of the mother their matriarch played by Helen Mirren who plays the title role of June and Tim Spall plays Bernie their father and yeah it was a very wonderful experience making this film and we were all sort of thrown together we only had seven weeks to shoot it in which was pretty intense first time writer me being a first time director and the support of this incredible cast and and we really did all become like a family when none of us wanted it to end. It feels like family watching it really you're gonna watch and you're gonna think oh it's like me and my brother yeah that's like me and my sister that's like my mum and my dad or whatever it is. Timothy I wonder what it was like from your perspective because you because Kate's directed this we'll come on to that in the first in a moment but when you saw this script you know you made of Bernie and the whole thing. Well when I first read it Kate told me I did a zoom event seen her for ages I did a zoom with her and she said you know I've got this thing I want you to read it she told me a little bit about it and I said I didn't have I was making a doing a TV series I haven't got time really at the moment but I will read it because I love you you're brilliant and then I've read it the following day didn't I and then I said I said I could be a couple of weeks and I just text her so I'm gonna do it I mean oh my god and it was the script was so brilliant and what she told me about it and I mean I worked with Kate when she was 20 and when she walked in the room right and she was open warm funny self-effacing brilliant and intelligent I thought I'm gonna keep an eye on this girl and she did really really well and not only is she still that she's really brilliant and I can tell you she's one of the best directors I've ever worked with in my life it's the first ever go at it you would never believe it she is absolutely sensational because you've got all of this experience all of this brilliance as an actor and she's paid attention all her life and I'll tell you this this thing that we got together as a group of actors I don't want to make it sound like the Partridge family I mean it was a bit it was a bit grubbier than that but it was kind of and it came out of her amazing ability to get everything in the right place get the people she wanted and this group of people could have gone either way it's a pretty heavyweight people in it but we all just hit it straight off and it emanated from this individual here this brilliant person who is not only one of the great actresses of her generation is now considered a great director as well it's an incredible watch it's a tough watch at times but yeah and that pours out the screen doesn't it when you're watching all of those things and also just knowing the background of it and knowing it was your boy who wrote it as well yeah it's written by my son so proud I mean I mean I'm out of control with pride I just I don't know what to do with myself and Joe himself he's so funny you know he's learning how to like walk a red carpet do these interviews and he's turning to me and saying what's happening how have we done so how have we done any what how what is what is it he just can't believe any of it happened because he he got a place on a screenwriting course and he was brave enough to apply you know I think that generation who didn't do their GCSEs because of COVID just self-confidence really took a knock and actually having the courage even to apply for this course was a big deal for him he got a place and had to write a script while he was there and this is what he wrote and he came to me afterwards and he was like oh yeah I've written this thing it you know it's probably not very good you know maybe you could just read it and just oh I don't know and I read it and was like well you're a writer then so we're going to make that into a film and he was he was very kind of like what are you talking about no it's not supposed to be that I'm just trying to learn how to do it mum I'm not don't do that don't do that thing it was very funny and uh and yeah we did it I mean it's um and when people see it you'll realize that this is not an accident this is not some fake because of their association each character is written so beautifully so intricately and generationally you think this is actually a bit of genius on the go here because these characters I'm playing I mean it's late 70s he's written absolutely specifically a wittily and funnily and dangerously painfully but each of these characters is an astounding it's an astounding debut astounding debut as a director astounding right and what you've also done of course Kate is you have created another Christmas film because it's one of Christmas to rival the Christmas film that starts Christmas for so many people around the country of course uh which is the holiday I wonder how you reflect on that film and the fact that it is it still resonates for so many people well I think the fact that it resonates is is you know that's the special thing about films isn't it they sometimes they leave their mark on people and uh what's been lovely actually is that I've discovered that mothers and daughters in particular it seems have a little Christmas ritual where they get together and that's their thing they send the boys out to the pub and they order a takeaway and get a box of chocolates and they watch the holiday together and uh that's that's really beautiful very very special to have been able to give people that yeah Jude recently came out and said that the cottage wasn't real Nancy Myers couldn't find the perfect I've actually been telling that story for years have you yeah I let that one slip a lot of time and then the exterior of Iris's cottage was just a facade it was just a shell so I'd walk in the front door and I would then just be standing on gravel and bits of old chewing gum and whatever was behind the fake door and then the interior was studio sorry to break your heart the TARDIS isn't that the smoke and mirrors of it all yeah it's amazing you you wouldn't believe it I mean there's a bit there's a bit in um in in the I'm probably really going over time here but in in uh in Avatar that the second one there's a bit where my character Brunel um is grieving the loss of her spirit sister who is a is a is a mother talk talkoon yes okay the way that scene plays in the finished movie is extraordinary and very emotional involving multiple characters I was in a swimming pool with a wetsuit on covered in dots okay I had to climb up to this sort of very uncomfortable it was like a metal grate with a metal grate mounted in front of me and you know those foam swimming pool noodles yeah yeah so they just bent one of those into the shape of an eye zip tied it to this thing that was the talkoon and didn't you have to hold your breath for 7 minutes and 15 seconds yeah I mean we've had Steve Baxall on this couch free diving with whales and I think he was up there that's amazing well I did I was trained to do it do not try that at home I was very much trained and you to do that beat Tom Cruise's world record by the way so I hear yeah see you later get to the back of the queue what's he got on you mission many many things I mean he I mean it's extraordinary actually the things he can do he can fly planes he does all his own stunts I mean it is very impressive but you know what you've done you have created a really extraordinary film thank you very much we both loved it oh well it means a lot to us so we're very proud it's not lost on me either I mean that is lovely to hear yeah thank you both for coming in have a guinness and some scratchings oh in the past life and the karaoke as well oh so good wonderful thank you thank you for coming in thank you uh goodbye june is out now thank you for visiting our this morning youtube 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