In Kate Winslet's star-studded directorial debut Goodbye June, Helen Mirren's character confides on her deathbed to her daughter that “I wish I'd been more of a slut”.
This line may have been directed by a woman, but it was written by a man – Kate Winslet's son Joe Anders, no less. Joe wrote the script for the first movie his mother would direct, which explores the final days of June's (Helen Mirren) life and the chaotic journey her family go on as they prepare for her death. Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Risborough also star in what is undoubtedly an incredible British cast in a very British, Christmassy film about the trials and tribulations of family love and connection. It feels unsanitised, raw, authentic.
“I didn't want to make the movie version of this story," Kate tells Glamour. "I wanted it to feel as real as possible. That's why it was so important as well to set it in the world of our great NHS, because that's of course what the majority of us here are familiar with.”
Goodbye June is a lot of things: a reflection on a life lived, a love letter to public healthcare, a showcase of the complexities of sisterhood and the speed bumps of toxic masculinity. All themes that Kate brings to the screen with sensitivity and humour.
The Titanic star has always been vocal about her experiences of sexism, ageism and criticism in Hollywood. Now, she opens up about what it means to her to create a filming environment that flies in the face of these misogynistic norms. A study found that in 2024, women directed just 16% of the top 250 grossing films.
“I'm very good at advocating for other women in the industry in general, for other actors,” she tells Glamour. "And even as a producer, being able to elevate other women into those roles that have been typically dominated by men. And I really did get to a point where I just thought, "My God, if I don't do this now, then what am I actually doing to try and change the culture? I'm not really contributing to that and changing that narrative unless I do it now."
That move, Kate says, was transformative. "As soon as that decision was made, I just felt empowered," she recalls, adding that she was then able to handpick a “brilliant crew” and ensure that everyone involved on the project “would step into an environment that I wanted to feel fun and very safe”.
“We had to work very much together having a male, female, fifty-fifty male-female crew,” she explains. "And actually there were times when I would look around the set and I'd think, ‘I actually think I might have more women than men here.’ Upsy-daisy. But the men didn't mind.
"Achieving that sense of balance, which matters a great deal because energetically, you do need a bit of both on a film set. And we were able to have that. So it meant a lot. I took it very seriously, not just the job itself, but being in a position where I could implement those things that matter to me so much."
Toni Collette and Andrea Risborough – who play the sisters of Kate's character Julia, Helen and Molly, respectively in Goodbye June – describe being directed by Kate as evidence of her “generous spirit”. “A lot of directors don't know how to communicate with actors,” Toni explains. “She's so sensitive and aware… It just felt natural.” “Even though it's her first film [directing], she has 30 plus years of experience, and has absorbed every last detail of filmmaking with curiosity and a brilliant mind,” Andrea says. “She was, in every way, best placed to make this transition. So it felt exciting.”
Having another powerhouse on set in the form of Helen Mirren leading the film was an inspiration. “She can bring such gravity to anything that she tackles,” Andrea says. Toni describes the MobLand star as “forever curious and growing”. “I think people sometimes get this idea that you get to a certain point and just stay there, but you keep growing,” she explains. “She's open to life.”
Goodbye June sees all three sisters navigate different levels of competitiveness, resentment and miscommunication throughout the film, which gives us a real fullness when it comes to the depiction of sisterhood and its highs and lows. Andrea's Molly also depicts female anger in the most gorgeous of ways, from the way she compares herself to her sister to when she threatens an insensitive doctor that she will "punch your cock off."
“It's funny, isn't it? Because that kind of anger, that caged, layers and layers of anger, can actually come from something that's really quite slight, and it can come from something that actually was not an intentional hurt,” Andrea says of the very relatable rage she brings to Molly. “The resentment builds, and builds. And it comes out sideways, and in all sorts of the wrong directions, with people in supermarkets and getting on the bus.”
When I ask Kate how she went about empowering members of her cast and crew on set, she is quick to point out the ways in which, as women, we must unpick various learned and internalised misogyny.
“I will say that even us as women, there are still ways of communicating that we need to unlearn," she says. "Sometimes women will undermine other women in order to feel powerful themselves. And often it's just about saying, 'You don't need to do that. There's another way of saying it.' And I'm the first one to call that stuff out, just in a very, very gentle way, just so that people can think about how they are making other people feel, because how you make someone else feel contributes to their sense of self-worth and what they feel they have to offer in that space.”
While promoting 2024's Lee, a biopic of real-life model turned WW2 photographer Lee Miller, Kate spoke out about a crew member telling her to sit up straight to hide her “belly rolls”. “What's really interesting about that comment it's that it's completely been assumed that it was a man who said that,” she tells Glamour. Turns out it wasn't. “It was a woman.”
Far from launching an attack on women, Kate views this instance as an example of the ways in which we must “unlearn” our own prejudices towards our own bodies, as well as others'. “All this stuff we just have to unlearn because we are so programmed ourselves even as women to think that we're supposed to look a certain way and other women thinking that we would want to know or be aware you might want to sit up a bit. Why?”
Having faced this scrutiny for so long, Kate's key to fighting back from these toxic norms and expectations is to champion one thing. “Authenticity is just so crucial in life, otherwise, we're all chasing an idea of perfection that doesn't exist. And also we're giving appalling messaging to a younger generation of women who frankly are all over the place and just want to be loved and liked.”
“It's really strange because on the one hand, I feel like we've come so far in certain areas," she says. "Mainstream media is not as critical and unkind to actresses in the public eye in the way that they used to be in the '90s – to me, certainly. That side of it has changed, but the online world has become absolutely cut-throat. That does make me sad.
“It worries me enormously because a young person's self-esteem is being entirely dictated by the opinions of complete strangers who seem to feel empowered by just being nasty.”
So, in the face of the disempowerment women can feel both online and on set, where can we start when it comes to countering these damaging beauty standards and normalisation of online trolling? For Kate, the answer is simple yet effective. “I think it's enormously important that if people are online, to say something kind. It's guaranteed to make you feel good. It's a guarantee and it's not that hard to do.”
Goodbye June is available to watch in cinemas from 12 December and drops on Netflix on 24 December.
