Director Neil Burger says Winslet is truly one of the best, very dedicated

Mar 21, 2014 15:59 GMT  ·  By

Some actors won’t even do a more complex fighting scene for fear they might get hurt, letting their stunt doubles do all the heavy-lifting, but Kate Winslet insisted on doing most of her stunt falls on “Divergent” even though she was pregnant, director Neil Burger reveals to People magazine.

The film, based on the best-selling young adult novel by Veronica Roth, will be out in theaters worldwide today and sees Winslet play the authoritative Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the Erudites faction. She’s tough to the bone and, Burger says, so is the actress in real life.

She insisted on doing some stunts that she could have easily skipped.

“We had to refit all of her wardrobe, but then there is a scene where she fights Shailene and she was like, you know, taking the falls and I'm like, ‘Stop, you're pregnant.’ But she was still wanting to do it with as much action,” the director explains.

“She's a committed actress and she's a committed mother, too. But she is just completely there, and you kind of just have to stop her,” he adds.

Throughout the entire production, Winslet was nothing but the consummate professional, not just with this but with everything else. Burger says he now knows why she’s hailed as one of the best actresses of her generation because he’s seen firsthand how dedicated she is.

Hopefully, Winslet and the entire cast’s efforts will pay off once the film is out: so far, initial critical response to it has been mixed, verging towards negative.