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When her hit TV show Mare of Easttown was released, Kate was criticised for how the character looked, with some suggesting she had not worn any make-up for the role. She told Emma that those comments simply spurred her on.

“You'd never make that much fuss or that much noise about a male actor’s appearance, would you now? No, you flipping wouldn’t,” says Kate. “I absolutely had make-up on and so when I came to do I Am Ruth, which was the next thing I filmed after Mare of Easttown, I thought: ‘Well, I've only got one option here and that's to go one step further and really actually not wear any make-up and just scrape my hair back into a crappy old ponytail like I do every day of my life anyway.

“There are a lot of myths, I think, around perfection and actresses looking perfect all the time and, and how real that is or that isn't. And I do care about being real and telling stories that are truthful and come from a place of integrity.

“That's certainly something that I feel is a shift in this time in my life. I care passionately about highlighting issues that need to be talked about that perhaps people find hard to talk about. And not shying away from truly looking like a hot mess a lot of the time. I mean, who puts on make-up while they’re doing the school run? I don’t.”

Credit: I Am Ruth, Channel 4

2. Aged 47, she thinks women get more powerful and sexy in their 40s

“[My feet] hurt so much I've just taken my shoes off,” says Kate. “I'm 47, there are bits that don't do what you want them to do anymore. There's something kind of fab about going: ‘Oh well, that's just the way it is, isn't it?’

“But I think women come into their 40s, certainly mid-40s, thinking: ‘Oh well, this is the beginning of the decline and things start to change and fade and slide in directions that I don't want them to go in anymore.’ And I've just decided no.

“We become more woman, more powerful, more sexy. We grow into ourselves more, we have the opportunity to speak and speak our mind and not be afraid of what people think of us, not care what we look like quite so much. I think it's amazing. Let's go girls, let's just be in our power. Why not? Life's too flipping short.”

3. Kate doesn’t think children should be given smartphones at a young age

“Don't let your children have a phone if they are too young to know what to do with it,” says Kate. “It's so clearly a massive issue for parents these days, struggling with teenagers and their mental health and the addiction to telephones and the use of social media, and not knowing how to sometimes even get through to or communicate with their child. It's something that we see all the time.

“It's tampering with a very basic level of self-esteem. But on a bigger and darker scale, it is tampering with young people's self-esteem to the extent that they are completely losing a sense of who they are, and don't know how to communicate with not just their friends, but their families. And it's making them depressed. It's clearly making them depressed. It's obviously a huge problem.”

Credit: I Am Ruth, Channel 4

4. Kate and her daughter, Mia, drew from their own relationship when they were acting as mother and daughter on screen

“We wanted to tell a story that was truthful and resonated with people in a way that might be new or might hopefully help them to have conversations that they have been nervous to have or haven't known how to have,” says Kate. “Going into it we knew as a mother and daughter that there were inevitably going to be some areas of overlap. Luckily, we are close. Luckily, she shares with me and I have always been able to support her and really listen.

“A little bit of our own experiences for sure are in there. I probably have said to her at one point: ‘Are you really going to go out of the house wearing a skirt that short?’ I'm sure I've done it'.”

5. Her own children haven’t got social media

“I don't have some magic formula,” says Kate. “I don't have a rulebook; I don't have a manual. I'm like any other parent who's made it up as I've gone along. I don't want to be accused of being a celebrity standing up on a soapbox, but it is possible to just say no. My children don't have social media and haven't had social media. There are many fake accounts out there for myself, and also my children, weirdly, so I'm told.

“But it's possible to just say: No, you can't have it. But you can't have it because I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to be a child, I want you to look at the clouds and not photograph them and post them on your Instagram page, and then decide whether or not the clouds are worth looking at because someone thought that they were rubbish.”

6. Kate never thought that her daughter would be cast in the same drama

“It never even occurred to me that we would think of Mia for the daughter [in I Am Ruth],” says Kate. “But Dominic Savage [who directed the feature length episode] said to me: Why aren't we asking Mia? I was initially a bit taken aback, and I said: ‘Oh my God. You'd have to audition her. I have to be separate from that decision. That can't have anything to do with me. So they went through the proper process and he said: ‘Look, if you feel brave enough, I think we should do it.

“I haven't been concerned about the nepotism suggestion. If it was Mia’s first ever job, I could understand why I'd feel like I had to justify it and be defensive. But she's been acting for four years now and actively getting work and doing her own thing. She's doing it and not with my help at all.”

Credit: I Am Ruth, Channel 4

7. She donated £17,000 to a mother facing sky-high energy bills to operate her daughter's life support because she ‘couldn’t let them suffer’

In November, Kate donated to help Carolynne Hunter pay her energy bills after she was featured on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Scotland. Carolynne had been warned that her bill could hit that sum next year as her 12-year-old daughter Freya has severe cerebral palsy and relies on receiving oxygen for chronic breathing problems. Emma asked Kate what it meant to her to be able to help.

“I've always felt enormous compassion for the individual who is in a powerless position,” says Kate. “This woman, Carolynne, was going to have to possibly put her child into care because she couldn't afford her energy bills, I just couldn't let that happen.

“What was remarkable and utterly moving to me is that in the six days following my initial donation, it had more than doubled in donations from people who put in a fiver, a tenner, people putting their hand in their pocket because they wanted to make a difference to that woman. When they clearly probably had very little funds to be able to actually help themselves, they were able to put their hand on their heart, their hand in their pocket and help and that gives me hope about the way of the world. I couldn't let Carolynne and Freya suffer.”

8. In lockdown, Kate did the same as you and I - ate crips in her jogging bottoms on the sofa…

“During lockdown, we were permanently living on the sofa eating crisps - as many fake foods as possible - just only wearing tracksuit pants because nothing else would do up,” says Kate. “Bras became super challenging, and really painful when we finally had to put them back on and walk out into the real world. It's like: ‘Oh my god, what is this halter we're wearing that no longer does up in the back?’”

Listen to Kate Winslet’s interview with Emma Barnett in full on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sounds, where you can also find every episode of the Woman’s Hour podcast that you may have missed. You can follow us on and @bbcwomanshour.

I Am Ruth premieres on Channel 4 at 9pm on 8 December 2022, or you can watch on demand on All4.