Kate Winslet on I Am Ruth and how film explores teenage phone addiction: ‘Social media has always worried me’
In Kate Winslet’s new film, she stars as the mother of a teenage girl – played by her own daughter Mia Threapleton – who is struggling with issues related to what seems to be an addiction to her mobile phone.
I Am Ruth is part of Channel 4‘s I Am series – a female-led drama anthology of standalone programmes, developed and written by director Dominic Savage in collaboration with the leading actress in each film.
The subject matter of Winslet‘s is particularly prescient right now, with the controversial Online Safety Bill making headlines as it goes through parliament. It is aimed at protecting youngsters in the wake of the deaths of teenagers including Molly Russell, who died after viewing suicide and self-harm content in 2017.
Pic: Channel 4
Like all parents, the Oscar-winning star worries about her own children’s relationship with technology.
“We all do – my youngest is about to turn nine and I do worry,” she told Sky News. “But it’s very, very hard, isn’t it, as a parent? Saying ‘No, you can’t have that, hey, stop looking at that, don’t look at it’ – because we’re doing it.
“Social media has always worried me – I think that there are extraordinary benefits to it for some people, but you have to be quite robust, I think, to know how to use it wisely and carefully.”
Winslet believes the pandemic exacerbated issues that already existed for children.
“Young people, I think especially because of COVID, it just got really out of control – loneliness and insecurity and just building a basic level of self-esteem for so many of these children. During COVID that self-esteem they were sort of searching for almost online in some way, and that’s desperately sad.
“And I think that everyone in some way can resonate with that story, and that idea resonates with most parents today who have teenagers – it’s incredibly hard.”
Read more:
Friend of 14-year-old who died from self-harm hits out at social media
Online safety bill might not be too little, but it is certainly too late
Pic: Channel 4
‘None of us as parents have a manual’
I Am Ruth sees Winslet’s character, Ruth, clearly unprepared for how to deal with her daughter as she withdraws, refusing to speak to her mother or arguing with her on the rare occasions she does leave her bedroom.
The actress hopes viewers might recognise aspects of the characters or what they’re going through. “It’s important to me to create space for people to talk about things that are really uncomfortable,” she said.
“Sometimes I am aware that being a little bit in the public eye and being someone who does have a little bit of a history with hopefully inspiring women and making women feel celebrated and seen and part of a wider conversation, I was aware that in doing something like this, we had to really get it right because hopefully people will watch and will listen and will feel that they can start to open up and have those conversations.
“So I definitely felt the responsibility. It was never a burden, but I just felt that we’ve really got to get this right. Like how the character looks, for example, we could not dress her up at all, we had to go very much the opposite.
“And also setting this in a middle-class world was really important to me – I said to Dominic [Savage], we can only do this if we don’t set it in a lower socioeconomic environment because I feel that often when stories like that are told on television or on film, that typically they are set in a more lower-class environment and I don’t think that’s right, and I don’t think that’s accurate in terms of now.
“I think it is the middle classes who are struggling and coming across these issues and I think it’s taking their breath away and none of us as parents have a manual. Sometimes we do look our children in the eye and just think, ‘oh, my God, I don’t know what to do’.”
Read more:
Kate Winslet on TV return for ‘most challenging role ever’
Kate Winslet admits ‘bitter regrets’ over ‘poor choices’
Winslet won an Emmy in 2021 for her performance in the hit series Mare Of Easttown. Pic: AP
‘We know how to push each other’s buttons’
The film was built around improvisation; the actors discussed scenes before filming but there was no exacting script. With Winslet and her daughter acting together, she says there were times when the fictional story tipped over into reality.
“There was always going to be an inevitable area of crossover just because we’ve all gone through something with our children. And obviously, when you put Mia and I together, we know how to push each other’s buttons and are not afraid to raise our voice to one another, even though it’s a really uncomfortable thing to do.”
The lines between reality and drama were also blurred in other parts of the production, giving the film a unique authenticity.
“There’s a scene in I Am Ruth when we sit down with a doctor who was actually a real doctor, who was really called Doctor Susie, and that was really her surgery. And the first time Mia and I met her was when the cameras were rolling and we walked into that room, so it was a really real visceral experience for both of us.
“But when she says, I’m going to get a referral to CAMHS [children and adolescent mental health services], my character says ‘I don’t know what that is’ – because some people don’t know.
“I think giving that little bit of education, throwing things into the conversation and hopefully making people feel as though they aren’t alone – this is a story that resonates, [parents] are sick of their children being obsessed and addicted to their phones, and at the same time, not knowing how to handle it.”
In developing this story and producing her hit drama Mare of Easttown, Winslet seems to be prioritising her career away from the camera as much as her acting.
“As a woman in her 40s, often women think this is the time when we kind of start to fade and decline a little bit – NO, you become more woman, more powerful, more important, your voice is stronger – get out there and use it…
“It’s a completely different ballgame because you’re constantly juggling everything, being aware of what’s going on, on set all the time and making sure everyone’s happy, as well as playing the character and raising the financing – it’s a lot, but the sense of achievement is enormous and always wanting to tell stories with a degree of integrity and certainly truth to me is absolutely paramount.”
I Am Ruth airs on Channel 4 later and will be available on catch up service All4
An emergency vote on Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest has been called off following developments in the Middle East, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has said.
Contest organisers had scheduled “an extraordinary meeting of [its] general assembly to be held online” in early November after several countries said they would no longer take part in Eurovision if Israel participated.
The EBU said in a statement that following “recent developments in the Middle East” the executive board had agreed on Monday that there should be an in-person discussion among members “on the issue of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026”.
It said the matter had now been added to the agenda of its winter general assembly, which will take place in December.
Further details about the session would be shared with EBU members in the coming weeks, it added.
It is not clear if a vote will still take place at a later date.
Austria is hosting next year’s show in Vienna. The country’s national broadcaster, ORF, told Reuters news agency it welcomed the EBU’s decision.
Sky News has contacted Israeli broadcaster KAN for comment.
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Will Eurovision boycott Israel?
Faced with controversy over the conflict in Gaza, Eurovision – which labels itself a non-political event – had said member countries would vote on whether Israel should or shouldn’t take part.
Slovenia and broadcasters from Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Iceland had all issued statements saying if Israel was allowed to enter, they’d consider boycotting the contest.
As one of the “Big Five” backers of Eurovision, Spain’s decision to leave the competition would have a significant financial impact on the event – which is the world’s largest live singing competition.
In September, a letter from EBU president Delphine Ernotte Cunci, said “given that the union has never faced a divisive situation like this before” the board agreed it “merited a broader democratic basis for a decision”.
Read more:
Why Eurovision vote on Israel might not stop boycott
Could Eurovision boycott lead to a competition crisis?
On Monday, Palestinian militant group Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza, and Israel released busloads of Palestinian detainees, under a ceasefire deal aimed at bringing an end to the two-year war in the Middle East.
The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation, with airstrikes and ground assaults devastating much of the enclave and killing more than 67,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants but it says around half of those killed were women and children.
Entertainment
Diane Keaton, star of Annie Hall and The Godfather, has died aged 79 – US media reports
Actress Diane Keaton, who starred in films including The Godfather and Annie Hall, has died, reports have said.
People reported her death at the age of 79, citing a family spokesperson.
The magazine said she died in California with loved ones but no other details were immediately available, and representatives for Keaton did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press news agency.
Keaton’s death was also reported by the New York Times newspaper which said it has spoken to Dori Roth, who produced a number of Keaton’s most recent films, who confirmed she had died but did not provide any details about the circumstances.
With a long career, across a series of movies that are regarded as some of the best ever made, Keaton was widely admired.
She was awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA and two Golden Globe Awards, and was also nominated for two Emmys, and a Tony, as well as picking up a series of other Academy Award and BAFTA nominations.
Diane Keaton, with her best actress Oscar for ‘Annie Hall’ in 1978. Pic: AP
Her best actress Oscar was for the Woody Allen film Annie Hall, which is said to be loosely based on her life.
She appeared in several other Allen projects, including Manhattan, as well as all three Godfather movies, in which she played Kay, the wife and then ex-wife of Marlon Brando’s son Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, opposite him as he descends into a life of crime and replaces his father in the family’s mafia empire.
‘Brilliant, beautiful’
The unexpected news was met with shock around the world.
Her First Wives Club co-star Bette Midler wrote on Instagram: “The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died. I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me.
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was … oh, la, lala!”
Actor Ben Stiller paid tribute on X, writing: “Diane Keaton. One of the greatest film actors ever. An icon of style, humor and comedy. Brilliant. What a person.”
Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” phrasing as Annie Hall, bedecked in the iconic necktie, bowler hat, vest and khakis, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams, the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family.
Keaton also frequently worked with Nancy Meyers, starting with 1987’s Baby Boom.
Their other films together included 1991’s Father of the Bride and its 1995 sequel, as well as 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give.
In 1996 she starred opposite Goldie Hawn and Midler in The First Wives Club, about three women whose husbands had left them for younger women.
More recently she collaborated with Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen and Candice Bergen on the Book Club films.
Keaton never married. She adopted a daughter, Dexter, in 1996 and a son, Duke, four years later.
Sky News has contacted Keaton’s agent for a comment.
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