Kate Winslet Delivers Emotional Speech About Helping Others

Kate Winslet Delivers Emotional Speech About Helping Others
The actress bordered on tears as she addressed important issues including cancer, homelessness and autism.

42-year-old Kate Winslet made a heartfelt speech at the SAG AFTRA Foundation 2nd Annual Patron of the Artists Awards this weekend.

The Oscar-winning actress, who was recognised with the Actors Inspiration Award, held back tears as she spoke about her efforts to help a 28-year-old British woman battling ovarian cancer pay for life-saving treatments earlier this year.

“Her prognosis dictated that she should have been dead in June,” she explained. “I was able to help fundraise an enormous amount of money and she’s cancer-free today,” reads The Hollywood Reporter.

“The greatest privilege for me has been learning how to use my voice on behalf of others,” she went on. “And, for me, that is standing up for individuals who do not have the means to help themselves, whether they have autism and are non-verbal, whether they are homeless because of addiction, abuse or fear or helping a person who is dying … because they haven’t the money to pay for the specialist treatment that could save their life.”

Winslet added that helping others was a key passion of hers. “I can’t stand that, so helping others who are striving to find a place in the world where they are understood, heard, accepted, supported, appreciated or given a right to a life — these are the individuals I am passionate about helping.”

The star explained that she learnt to be resilient from her first real big screen film, Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures. “When I woke up for my first ever day of filming, age 17, [I] felt as though the minute I stepped out of bed I was stepping out into a completely unknown world and embarking on a journey all by myself into the world of acting,” she said.

“I didn’t have any formal training in spite of what everyone thought and still thinks probably, but I had done my homework and I had toughened myself up so I was ready to take it all on,” she said. “All I knew was that I was lucky.”

A number of prominent celebrities spoke at the SAG-AFTRA event in Beverley Hills, including Gary Oldman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Andrew Garfield. Lionel Richie, Kathryn Bigelow and Ted Sarandos of Netflix were also honoured.

 

 

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