Kate Winslet And Daughter Mia Will Co-Star As Mother And Daughter In New Movie
The movie focuses on the global youth mental health crisis, as seen in one family.
There is one thing I know for sure — if Academy Award winning actor Kate Winslet is in it, I’m going to watch it. Thus will be the case with the new Channel 4 TV film — I Am Ruth. To add some intrigue to the highly anticipated film, Winslet will be starring alongside her own daughter, twenty-two year old Mia Threapelton. The pair are taking on a complicated mother-daughter relationship on screen.
The U.K.'s Channel 4 dropped a trailer for the upcoming film — created by Dominic Savage and Winslet, 47 — on their YouTube channel. Savage and Winslet "together have conceived a story for our times about the endemic mental health crisis affecting young people," an official synopsis from the network reads.
In the film, Winslet plays a mother named Ruth who is on a journey to desperately be there for her daughter, Freya (Threapleton) who is struggling with mental health issues.
In the short teaser trailer, viewers get a glimpse into the strained and complex relationship between Ruth and Freya. Another interesting aspect of the film revolves around social media and impacts it can have on teens.
The trailer shows Ruth taking Freya to see a counselor and confiscating Freya's cell phone, convinced her relationship with the internet and social media is the source of her daughter’s problems.
The trailer also briefly shows how Freya's struggles are affecting the rest of Ruth and Freya's family. In one scene, Ruth shares with a character, presumably Freya's brother, that Freya “is not doing well.”
I Am Ruth marks the first project that Winslet and Threapleton have worked on together since Threapleton caught the acting bug from her mom. Winslet shares Threapleton with ex-husband Jim Threapleton. The former couple divorced in 2001.
PEOPLE reported that Threapleton has been acting for a few years but did not take her mother’s name as to avoid any sort of favoritism or nepotism.
“I think I knew [it] was coming, I always suspected,” Winslet said of her daughter’s interest in acting. “And then a few years ago she turned around and said, ‘I'd like to give it a go.’”
Threapleton has a few acting credits to her name, including her role as Alma in the 2020 film Shadows and a spot on the Starz series — Dangerous Liaisons — where she plays the role of Rose.
According to Winslet, she auditioned and landed these roles all on her own.
“What's great for her is she has a different surname so she slipped under the radar and the people who cast her didn't know she was my daughter and that was important for her self-esteem, of course,” Winslet added.
Threapleton has had dreams of acting for quite some time, but wanted to make sure schooling was out of the way before really focusing on her new career path.
In an interview with Variety last year, Threapleton revealed that she just hoped a good role would come her way.
“I had just finished school, was free of exam hell, and felt excited, nervous and ready to start auditioning for things, and hoping that the opportunities to audition would come my way,” she said. “I just hoped I would get the chance to do what I had wanted to do for so long!”
I Am Ruth will premiere on the U.K.'s Channel 4 and the streaming service All 4 sometime at the end of 2022. It’s not yet clear when the movie will become available to watch in the United States.
