Actress Kate Winslet has said she is “proud” of her son Joe Anders for writing her latest film Goodbye June.
The 50-year-old, who directs the movie, told the Press Association at the world premiere at London’s Curzon Mayfair that for the first three weeks making the film her 21-year-old son, whose father is director Sam Mendes, was away working on another production as an actor.
She said: “I felt proud of him every day, every single day, and in fact for the first three weeks he wasn’t there because he was filming something as an actor overseas.
“And I had a little Snoopy patch, and it says Joe Cool on it, and I would just stick it on various different parts of my body, on my bum, on my chest, on my leg, until he came back, and I was like, ‘oh, now you’re back, I can put this patch away, because it kept falling off anyway.
“So that was my way of keeping him (involved).”
Christmas drama Goodbye June follows four siblings whose lives change when their mother’s health takes a turn for the worse during the festive period.
Winslet, who wore a black dress with a belt at Wednesday’s premiere, added: “I just wanted to make a film that felt authentic and real.
“I also didn’t want to make a story that was about someone who dies, because it’s really not, it’s actually about the life that is given to the people who are left behind and that family.
“And so it mattered to make it real, to keep it relatable for audiences, and to set it in our NHS space, which is massively undervalued, and we need to give credit and honour the people who do that incredible work, especially our palliative care workers.
“And so really highlighting that and seeing that mattered enormously to us as well.”
The film, which was inspired by the death of Winslet’s mother, also stars Dame Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough, Johnny Flynn, Stephen Merchant and Toni Collette.
Goodbye June is released in UK cinemas on December 12 before it will be available on streaming platform Netflix on Christmas Eve.
