Kate Winslet advises her family and friends not to watch Contagion. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, the thriller focused on the transmission of a global virus and the attempts to contain it amidst a loss of social order. Winslet was part of an ensemble cast that included Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Given the subject matter that the film devotes itself to exploring, Contagion has experienced a resurgence over the past several months. In conjunction with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the film's actors even reunited for a set of videos that offer facts and suggestions connected to dealing with the coronavirus. Still, despite the movie’s newly found relevance, Winslet admits she’s no particular hurry to give Contagion a rewatch.
In a new interview with EW, while promoting her new film Ammonite, Winslet was asked about her role in Contagion. The actress revealed that she has never seen the movie in full and has no plans to revisit it. She also explained that she went a step further, warning her friends and family against seeing Soderbergh’s film.
“I was like, ‘Well, don’t f—ing watch it! It will scare you’,” Winslet said. “The story is alarmingly accurate. We did work with a remarkable team of people who would listen to the CDC, who advised on the film and gave us incredible information daily and helped design the virus and work with [screenwriter] Scott Burns on the script.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic altered the lives of billions worldwide, Contagion has been viewed as prophetic. Back in February, the movie made headlines for jumping to the top of the charts on iTunes. While tolerance to the mostly bleak narrative of Contagion varies from one viewer to the next, the film has remained in the public consciousness for various reasons. Chief among them, perhaps, is how entertainment often gets used as a form of escapism. Though it does depict a harrowingly difficult scenario that hits a little too close to home, Contagion is ultimately a well-made thriller bolstered by a star-studded cast's performances. Of course, as Winslet’s comments indicate, not all audiences were able to view the story through that detached lens.
It is easier to discern how Contagion does not neatly align with the present moment, this far removed from the peak of the film’s popularity. Much of the renewed interest occurred within the first few months of COVID-19 when there was a lot more uncertainty about the future and the virus itself. In that context, it makes sense that Winslet would advise against watching the thriller. It presented a worst-case scenario, where the virus was a death sentence for many of the characters introduced in the movie, and then continued to ramp up the dread throughout the running time. That has a particular value in alerting audiences to the seriousness of the coronavirus, but Contagion has also been shown to unnerve viewers. Understandably, Winslet wouldn’t want her loved ones to go through that experience.
Source: EW