Kate Winslet bares all and gets naked

Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

Kate Winslet is an actress who isn’t afraid to bare her soul (and much more) on screen. The British star has masterfully performed in a wide range of roles to widespread critical praise, and many people believe that she’s long overdue for an Oscar. Thanks to 2008’s"The Reader," a drama set over several decades in post-World War II Germany, Winslet may very well get the chance to win her first Academy Award. Her role in the film has garnered Winslet her sixth Oscar nomination, as well as several other honors, including a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and an Orange British Academy Film (BAFTA) Award.

In "The Reader," Winslet stars as Hanna Schmitz, a 36-year-old woman who has a brief but intense affair with 15-year-old Michael Berg (played by German actor David Kross, in his English-language movie debut), as they bond over their love of books. Years later, when Michael is a law student, he is shocked to discover that Hanna is on trial for Nazi war crimes. During a February 2009 press conference at the 59th annual Berlin International Film Festival, Winslet opened about her challenging role in "The Reader," seducing an underage boy on screen and getting naked in her movies.

Your character in "The Reader" is very conflicted. What was your inspiration to take on this role?

It was a very complicated experience and process for me, playing Hanna, and in many ways it felt like a huge responsibility. And I wanted to honor ["The Reader"] novel and I wanted to honor the screenplay. It was a difficult balance …

The one thing I felt very strongly about was that whilst it would be very wrong of me to take on the responsibility of trying to humanize her, I did also know that I had to make her a human being. I had to make her a woman who’s possible of great love and affection and warmth, as well as the vulnerability and the shame that she feels. And she also had to be a woman who had some level of courage ...

How hard was it for you to do love scenes with someone who’s about half of your age?

It wasn’t difficult doing the love scenes with David at all. Quite a lot has been made of the love scenes and of David’s age. He’s 18. He’s a young man, and he’s extremely professional and, I think, absolutely brilliant in the film. For me, it was all about making sure that David knew what was going to be happening whilst we were shooting those scenes.

Because I’d been in the position David was in: really not knowing what it was going to be like, how many people would be in the room whilst we were doing those scenes. But the truth is, at the end of the day, it is part of his job, and it’s a very, very important part of this love story. And so we just got on with it, really. And dare I say, we actually kind of had a laugh.

How do you feel about getting an Oscar nomination for this film?

Incredibly happy to be nominated.

You’ve done a lot of nude scenes in your movies. Do you feel differently about doing them now, compared to 10 years ago?

I think it’s not something that one particularly enjoys, necessarily. I think that would be a very honest and fair thing to say. But at the same time, it’s sometimes a part of my job. And with this film, I read the novel, coincidentally, about six years ago, and was completely transported by it and deeply moved by it. Because for me, it was a love story.

And the intimacy and what Hanna and Michael share — and the impact that it has on both of their lives, for the rest of their lives — [are] enormous. So of course it would be important that those [sex] scenes would be a part of this film. It’s part of my job, and I just get on with it.