Kate Winslet stars as the authoritarian leader of a fictional European country in the new black comedy “The Regime.”
Premiering Sunday, March 3 (9 p.m.) on HBO and streaming on Max, the six-episode political satire was created by “The Menu” and “Succession” writer Will Tracy. The story follows a year within the palace of a crumbling regime, led by the volatile and paranoid Chancellor Elena Vernham (Winslet).
Co-stars include Hugh Grant as her political rival, Andrea Riseborough as the palace manager and Martha Plimpton as a US Senator.
“We did have a couple of moments when things would happen that were so funny that people would have to be sent out,” Winslet, 48, said at an HBO press conference to discuss the series.
She recalled an incident where she was filming a sex scene and, “Two people [on the set] had to be sent out for laughing. One of them was Alwin Kuchler, our cinematographer, who was a repeat offender. And one of our hair and makeup people [laughed and got sent out] – which was actually kind of a problem,” she explained, because her partner in the intimate scene had tattoos that were done with makeup.
“And he was getting sweatier and sweatier. They kept rubbing off on parts of my body, like I’ve got the newspaper printed on me,” said Winslet.
The Oscar winner, who affects a vaguely Germanic accent on the show, said that preparing for the role was intense.
“I’ll be honest, it was an extraordinarily complicated process. I was scared to f – – k it up,” she said.
Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts in “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
Kate Winslet said, “I was scared to f – – k it up,” about preparing for her role in “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
Hugh Grant plays her political rival in “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
“I was very hesitant to sound anything like myself,” she added. “For the main reason that there was a red flag in that, for me. Because the show was originally called ‘The Palace.’ And we’ve had many shows – in quite recent decades – about re-creations of real historical events to do with the British monarchy,” she continued, seemingly referring to the hit Netflix royal drama, “The Crown.”
“If you call a show, ‘The Palace,’ and put me in that role, people know how I sound in real life … I was worried the audience would spend the whole of the first — and, if not, part of the second — episode trying to come to understand exactly where they were. So, I knew for the penny to drop quickly, I had to come up with something else.”
She added: “We worked with the idea of her physically being certain ways with other people, dressing in occasionally quite grotesque, overtly sexual ways. And, speaking differently.”
Kate Winslet said that she didn’t want people to spend time trying to figure out where “The Regime” takes place.Miya Mizuno/HBO
Kate Winslet plays an authoritarian leader in a crumbling regime in HBO’s “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
Andrea Riseborough plays the frazzled palace manager.Miya Mizuno/HBO
At the beginning of “The Regime,” a soldier, Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), is tasked with following Elena around carrying an instrument to detect mold in palace rooms. Soon, Elena and Zubak — who the press has dubbed “The Butcher” for his overly violent shutdown of civilian protestors — develop a mutual fascination with each other.
Winslet described Elena as “a heck of a lot of fun to play.”
“But we had to be careful we didn’t … create a voice and do a gimmick,” she explained. “Because when you’re doing something that is sharply and cleverly funny like that, you have to play it for reality. And there are these much bigger themes — there is our geopolitical backdrop. And people will take from that whatever they do.”
Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts. Winslet called “The Regime” a love story between their characters.Miya Mizuno/HBO
Kate Winslet said that people had to be “sent out” for laughing during a sex scene she did in “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts as Elena and Zubeck in “The Regime.”Miya Mizuno/HBO
But also, she said, “The Regime” is a love story.
“This unexpected, twisted, extraordinarily, weirdly beautiful love story between these two social misfits, who come crashing together, and become obsessed with one another,” she told reporters.
“There’s something phenomenally touching about Elena and Zubeck together … we had to make sure we were finding a rhythm and energy for them that was intriguing as well as bizarre.”
