Kate Winslet on Stepping Into the ‘Absurd’ World of ‘The Regime’ (Exclusive)

Kate Winslet is delving into a volatile, yet slightly fabulous new character in her new series “The Regime.”

On “Extra: The Podcast,” she opens up to correspondent Mona Kosar Abdi about playing the demented dictator of a small nation in “Middle Europe.” Listen here!

Kate plays Elena Vernham, whom she describes as being in a “very volatile, fragile, emotional, and mental state.”

Winslet raved about the team behind the series, saying, “They had done such a phenomenal job at crafting this really smart, absurd, unique, unimaginable world for us all to step into. So, the characters were there on the page, but then giving them a backstory, rooting them in something that felt real.”

She added, “This is clearly something that she’s living with and that she’s in a very acute phase of, and so I had to really kind of focus on that and lean into why she has become the way she has become.”

Her character’s behavior is what drew Kate to the project. She explained she was attracted to “just how extreme she could be.”

Speculating about her backstory, she added, “She was probably exposed to significant, unusual trauma as a child, and that has all had an impact on her physical self. How she speaks, how she moves, that desire for love, that need for approval.”

The movie also has her reuniting with Hugh Grant nearly 30 years after “Sense and Sensibility.”

She gushed, “Oh, Hugh! I mean, he’s just so brilliant, he’s so formidable… It was such a pleasure to work with him again after so many years.”

Kate recalled her time working on “Sense and Sensibility.” She said, “I was 19 when I did ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and I really was just terrified and didn’t know what the heck I was doing, so to sort of feel like I’ve kind of earned my place at the table a little more and worked with him again now in my late 40s, it was just such a joy.”

Winslet noted that Grant “elevates everything” by “walking into the room.”

“The Regime” premieres March 3 on HBO.