Kate Winslet's Passion Project

Silly Worries

Clearly I've been living in New York City too long. I would worry about the hygiene...

Oh no no no. Think of the great DNA in that hat.

But who knows? There are lice and things...

If Johnny Depp had lice, I don't think people would mind getting it.

Ugh!

[Laughs.] But anyway, you wouldn't believe some of the things I did to get that hat to people. Like, I gate-crashed a private function to get the hat to Bill Clinton. It was a dinner party of about 30 people, and my friend foolishly gave me a ticket. I'd just had minor surgery and I had stitches, and I was like, I don't care, I need Bill Clinton, f--- it. So I hobbled in to this party in my cocktail dress, and begged. Unfortunately he was surrounded by handlers who wouldn't let him put it on.

See! Hygiene!

But I needed to try. And most of the time it was fine. A lot of the time it was just me racing around the city to different events. Once my children and I made a road trip to watch Michael Phelps swim in Baltimore, so we could get him into the hat.

Why didn't you just FedEx the hat?

No! I was terrified of losing it -- and I was sure I'd lost it several times. See, at some point I want to auction it off to raise more money.

You seem to feel the importance of giving back in some way quite profoundly.

Well, my father is disabled -- he lost his foot in an accident when I was young. It was awful, it caused all sorts of problems, both physically and psychologically -- and for a while my family was supported by a charitable trust. So I understand on a very personal level what a charitable organization can do.

But at any rate, I'm doing this because I want to. I don't need the world to think I'm Mother Teresa, and the last thing I want to do is come across as some celebrity who's had an epiphany about the world. It's just that in this case I could see a need, and I could do something to fill it.

How do you teach your children about giving back?

They get a little allowance every week, and they are given an opportunity to match what we put in the family charity box each week. They always put in part of their allowance, so I think their awareness of giving is present.

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