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50 free Kate Winslet trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kate Winslet grew up in a family of actors in Reading, was bullied about her weight at school, and left drama school at sixteen to work in a delicatessen. Three years later Peter Jackson cast her in Heavenly Creatures; three years after that she begged James Cameron to let her be Rose and ended up in the highest-grossing film ever made. This quiz follows the career she built by deliberately walking away from blockbusters: Marianne Dashwood and Ophelia, Hideous Kinky and Holy Smoke!, the Grammy for a children's audiobook, Eternal Sunshine, the Oscar for The Reader, Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown on HBO, Joanna Hoffman's accent, the seven-minute breath hold for Avatar, and the Netflix film her son wrote for her to direct. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a movie-night quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Kate Winslet was born in which English town?
Reading
Her maternal grandparents ran the Reading Repertory Theatre Company.
Q 02Winslet's first stage role, aged five, was which nativity figure?
Mary
She went on to play Wendy Darling in Peter Pan at drama school.
Q 03Which theatre school did Winslet enrol in at age eleven?
Redroofs
The Maidenhead school doubled as an agency and took pupils to London auditions.
Q 04As a child Winslet appeared in a TV commercial for which breakfast cereal?
Sugar Puffs
Drama school also had her dubbing foreign films.
Q 05Winslet's 1991 screen debut Dark Season was written by which future Doctor Who showrunner?
Russell T Davies
She played Reet, a schoolgirl fighting a man handing out sinister free computers.
Q 06Short of money at sixteen, Winslet worked where to support herself?
A delicatessen
Dark Season paid little and she had to leave drama school.
Q 07Who directed Heavenly Creatures, Winslet's 1994 film debut?
Peter Jackson
She beat 175 other women to the role of Juliet Hulme.
Q 08Heavenly Creatures is based on a real 1954 murder case in which country?
New Zealand
She read the trial transcripts and the girls' diaries; Jackson shot at the real locations.
Q 09Who played Pauline Parker opposite Winslet in Heavenly Creatures?
Melanie Lynskey
Lynskey later became a household name in Yellowjackets and The Last of Us.
Q 10Winslet originally auditioned for which minor part in Sense and Sensibility?
Lucy Steele
Emma Thompson was so impressed she gave her the far bigger part of Marianne.
Q 11Director Ang Lee asked Winslet to practise what to bring restraint to Marianne Dashwood?
Tai chi
He also had her read gothic literature and learn the piano.
Q 12Winslet played which Shakespearean character in Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet?
Ophelia
She had earlier auditioned unsuccessfully for Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Q 13In the 1996 film Jude, Winslet played Sue Bridehead opposite which actor?
Christopher Eccleston
The film adapts Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.
Q 14James Cameron initially preferred which actress for Rose in Titanic?
Q 21In Quills (2000), Winslet played a laundress working where?
A mental asylum
The film is a biopic of the Marquis de Sade starring Geoffrey Rush.
Q 22What did Winslet wear under her costume in Enigma to hide her pregnancy?
Corsets
Her code-breaker role was greatly expanded from the love interest of the novel.
Q 23Winslet and Judi Dench played which novelist at different ages in a 2001 biopic?
Iris Murdoch
She studied the memoir Elegy for Iris and earned her third Oscar nomination.
Winslet's hit single 'What If' came from a 2001 animated film adapting which author?
Gwyneth Paltrow
Winslet pleaded, 'I am Rose! I don't know why you're even seeing anyone else!'
Q 15What was the full name of Winslet's Titanic character?
Rose DeWitt Bukater
She was a socialite aboard the ill-fated liner, opposite DiCaprio's Jack.
Q 16Titanic's replica ship was built at which studio complex?
Baja Studios
Filming left Winslet with influenza, hypothermia and bruises; she nearly drowned.
Q 17How many Academy Awards did Titanic win?
11
It tied the record for a single film; Winslet was nominated for Best Actress at 22.
Q 18Hideous Kinky follows a single British mother seeking a new life in which country?
Morocco
The film is based on Esther Freud's semi-autobiographical novel.
Q 19In Jane Campion's Holy Smoke! Winslet played a woman of which nationality?
Australian
She learnt the accent to play a woman who joins an Indian religious cult.
Q 20Winslet won a Grammy for narrating a story on which children's audiobook?
Listen to the Storyteller
The award was for Best Spoken Word Album for Children in 1999.
Charles Dickens
The film was Christmas Carol: The Movie, and the song became a commercial hit.
Q 25Who played Winslet's ex-boyfriend in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
Jim Carrey
She practised kickboxing to stay agile and calls the film a turning point in her career.
Q 26How much was Winslet paid to play Sylvia Llewelyn Davies in Finding Neverland?
£6 million
It became her most widely seen film since Titanic, grossing $116 million.
Q 27In her 2005 Extras cameo, Winslet played a nun in what kind of project to chase an Oscar?
A Holocaust drama
The satirical turn earned her an Emmy nomination for guest actress in a comedy.
Q 28Which director cast Winslet in the 2005 musical Romance & Cigarettes?
John Turturro
She twisted her ankle during a dance sequence; she had given birth three months earlier.
Q 29Little Children made Winslet, at 31, the youngest to reach how many Oscar nominations?
Five
Two years later she broke her own record with a sixth, for The Reader.
Q 30In The Holiday, Winslet swaps homes with a character played by which actress?
Cameron Diaz
It grossed over $205 million, her biggest hit in nine years.