Kate Winslet courtesy Maggie (Maggiejumps) (CC 2.0)

Kate Winslet has always been honest about her weight, even arguing with studios over the issue, but she tells Daily Telegraph that as a teenager many stage roles were lost because she was unsparingly told that she was “too fat.”

She was also told that her feet “were the wrong size,” and every other humbling insult.

Winslet tells young actors to keep persuing their dramatic bent and reminding them that if she could overcome her slings and arrows, “anything was possible.”

She will play the title role of the HBO mini-series, Mildred Pierce next month, while Contagion is Winslet’s next film, scheduled to be out in October.