‘The Reader’ Star Kate Winslet Struggled With Filming Her Lead Role

The luxurious lifestyles of Hollywood's A-list actors may hint at a world of only glitz and glamor. More so, the charisma of the movie industry has made many desire celeb statuses.

However, beyond taking a cursory glance, there exists an array of determined minds ready to give their all on set.

From partaking in crazy stunt scenes to embodying the weirdest of characters, the list goes on and on-proving that acting is a big deal and not for the weakest of persons.

In line with this, many actors have faced harrowing experiences while portraying characters that contrast with their personalities. For Kate Winslet, star of the biopic, "The Reader," her preparation for the role made her feel enormous pressure. Also, the aftermath of the production got her reeling for a long time.

The making of the movie required Winslet to learn a lot within a very short while. In her interview with HuffPost, she described the tasking moment of getting prepped for the role.

"It was hard. It was a long process, and I felt like I had to cram quite a lot in," she said. I only had about two months, and there was a lot to do with the general preparation of Hannah."

"I had to educate myself a little more about the Holocaust-and I had to educate myself a lot about the role of an SS guard, about which I actually knew very little."

After filming ended, the emotional trauma Winslet had sustained weighed a lot on her. The actress likened the scenario to feeling like a car crash victim.

"We wrapped on July 12th, and I sort of walked away like some car crash victim who somehow hadn't been hurt on the outside, but I felt like I couldn't speak [about it]," the actress recalled.

"It was truly overwhelming. I really went somewhere. I was in some kind of a trance. And I'm still coming to terms with all of it. I'm so blown away by the movie."

Winslet's role in the flick was to portray Hannah Schmitz, an ex-female work camp guard in a Nazi regime. As per her interview with HuffPost, the actress spoke about how their contrasting characters made the role more difficult.

"I was very much playing a character, and I remember staring down the barrel of the gun and thinking, "Shit. I have nothing I can relate to here," she recalled of her time on set.

"There's nothing of my own experience I can put into this character at all. So, let's just start right there and hope for the goddamn best."

She also shared some insight into some of her character's attributes, citing how it placed her in a terrifying position.

"It was enormous pressure, "she said. "The thing about playing Hannah that, quite honestly, was the hardest -- aside from all the obvious things: the dialect and so on, and the aging, and the illiteracy and the moral illiteracy--the hardest thing was to hold on to my instincts as to who you are."

Against the odds, Winslet performed extraordinarily, winning several awards for the role.

Set on the backdrop of the events after the Holocaust era, the movie told the story of the affair between two unlikely folks. On the one hand, was Winslet's character Schmitz and on the other was Michael Berg (David Kross and Ralph Fiennes).

Their clandestine romance blossomed into love as they spent more and more time together. Berg also used this opportunity to read books to Schmitz- who was illiterate.

In time the lovers separated, as Schmitz suddenly vanished into thin air. Her disappearance caused Berg a lot of pain, but he moved on and later attended law school.

Years after, Berg met Schmitz once more but under different circumstances. This time, she was on trial for her role in Nazi war crimes as a warden that committed heinous crimes.

Ultimately, she went to jail, and Berg had to deal with the new secrets he discovered about his previous lover.

Winslet is one of many actors that loves bringing their A-game to each role they portray. Another instance of her display of sheer dedication was in the making of James Cameron's "Avatar 2."

For her role in the upcoming sequel, she learned how to hold her breath for long periods. Ultimately, she completed the scene perfectly and broke the record previously set by fellow celeb Tom cruise. She ended up holding her breath for a seemingly impossible time of seven minutes and 14 seconds,

Citing another scenario, Winslet took up a role in "The Mountain Between Us" that required her to act in subzero temperature conditions.

The conditions were so harsh and brutal that former co-star Leonardo DiCaprio felt convinced that she was crazy for taking on the part. Ultimately, she survived and is still thrilling her fans today.