Kate Winslet says she never set out to become a director – but after reading her son’s first screenplay, she simply “couldn’t let it go”.

In 2023, Joe Anders, whose father is director Sam Mendes, signed up to a screenwriting course at the National Film and Television School.

His mother read one of his assignments and insisted it was worth making into a film – so they did.

Anders created a story around adult siblings who reunite around Christmastime to say goodbye to their dying mother.

Abiding by Mark Twain’s phrase “write what you know”, it was inspired by the death of Winslet’s mother Sally Bridgers-Winslet from ovarian cancer in 2017.

Speaking to Sky News, the Titanic actress says they learned “how to develop a completely new relationship” as colleagues”.

“I’m incredibly impressed by him and really proud of him, not least because he wrote this screenplay and started writing it when he was 19,” she says.

“But he had to adapt and learn very, very quickly that when you’re developing something, you take notes, you take feedback.

“Netflix became involved at some stage that they were also giving notes to, and then I was sort of playing the role of kind of protecting the project and also protecting him at the same time from things that, you know, may necessarily not have been useful, things that actually were great ideas.”

Anders isn’t her only child to have got their start alongside their famous parent.

Mia Threapleton, who most recently starred in the Wes Anderson film The Phoenician Scheme, made her on-screen debut in the 2014 Winslet-led movie A Little Chaos.

They worked together again in the series I Am… which won Winslet a TV BAFTA award for best leading actress.

An actor’s director

Winslet has starred in some of the biggest films of all time, with Titanic, Avatar and Sense And Sensibility, to name a few.

She says it’s that experience in front of the camera that helped her tailor the on-set experience to help its actors explore their emotions and creativity.

“We know what works for us as actors from a director,” she says. “We know what does not work, and we also know what’s actively destructive and sometimes that can mean the environment, the working environment.

“Film sets are very busy places it can often be frantic, sometimes it’s hard to kind of follow what’s going on or what you’re doing next, and it mattered to me enormously that everybody always felt extremely safe, completely informed, and very free.”

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Winslet adds: “In this country, we’re not necessarily so good at processing, especially when it comes to talking about grief.

“And so hopefully through this film, which is also very funny, hopefully through this film, people might see something of themselves and connect with it in that way.”

‘One of the greats’

Co-star Timothy Spall says “it’s not surprising she’s such a good director” – and calls her “one of the great actresses in the world.”

“I worked with her when she was 20. She was impressive then, just before she got Titanic… and she’s paid attention. She’s listened. She’s a great actress,” Spall says of Winslet.

“She knows how it works, and she helps other actors to do the best they can. And she’s all over the crew. She’s great with them. She’s paid attention in every department.”

Goodbye June is out on Netflix on 24 December