Kate Winslet says her family never watch The Holiday

For many families, it has become an annual Christmas tradition – gathering together to watch The Holiday.

The romantic comedy from 2006 told the tale of two broken-hearted women, played by Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, arranging a Transatlantic house-swap to help them make it through Christmas. Jude Law and Jack Black were the love interests.

But one family which does not have a yearly yuletide yearning to view the film is Winslet’s.

“No, we haven’t seen The Holiday for years,” she says adamantly, adding: “We don’t sit down and watch films I’m in. I barely do.”

“You know, almost everything I’ve been in I’ve only seen once,” Winslet continues.

“When you watch the finished product, for most actors, that’s an excruciating experience. It’s something you kind of have to go through.”

The subject has come up because Kate Winslet is talking to the BBC about her first Christmas film for almost 20 years, Goodbye June.

Written by her son Joe Anders, it was inspired by the death of his grandmother Sally, Winslet’s own mother, from ovarian cancer in 2017. It tells the story of siblings trying to put disputes aside to unite and honour their mother as she undergoes palliative care at Christmas.

“It’s not actually a film about dying,” says Winslet, explaining why she thinks it will make a suitable festive watch on Christmas Eve, the day it drops on Netflix.

“It’s a film about living more than anything. People have been finding it very, very uplifting.”