Kate Winslet stopped 'Mare of Easttown' director from editing out a 'bulgy bit of belly' in sex scene

• Kate Winslet said she had to stop several attempts to airbrush her appearance on "Mare of Easttown."
• Winslet said the show's director Craig Zobel wanted to remove "a bulgy bit of belly" in a sex scene.
• "'Don't you dare!'" Winslet said she responded to Zobel.

HBO's "Mare of Easttown" has won huge praise for its dedication to realism, but Kate Winslet has revealed that she had to push back against several attempts to airbrush her character's appearance on the show.

In an interview with The New York Times following the show's finale, Winslet, who also served as an executive producer on the show, said that on-set director Craig Zobel told her that he would remove "a bulgy bit of belly" that appeared in a sex scene her character Mare Sheenan shared with Richard Ryan, played by Guy Pearce.

"'Don't you dare!'" Winslet said she told Zobel. The 45-year-old actor also said that she sent the show's promotional poster back twice because the images had been retouched.

"They were like 'Kate, really, you can't,' and I'm like 'Guys, I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them all back,'" she said.

Winslet continued to say that she believes audiences have connected with the show and her character because "there are clearly no filters."

"She's [Mare] a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we're starved of that a bit," she said.

She continued: "What worries me is that faces are beautiful. Faces that change, that move, are beautiful faces, but we've stopped learning how to love those faces because we keep covering them up with filters now because of social media and anyone can photoshop themselves, and airbrush themselves, and so they do.

"In general, I would say I feel for this generation because I don't see it stopping, I don't see or feel it changing, and that just makes me sad because I hope that they aren't missing out on being present in real life and not reaching for unattainable ideals."

Later during the interview, Winslet also revealed that her father served as the physical inspiration for her character.

"My dad actually reminds me quite a lot of Mare, to be honest. He was slightly the inspiration," she said. "He basically moves like Mare and eats like Mare. Well, he does eat with his mouth full. We do tell him all the time, 'Dad!' He's going to be so mad I just said that."

Last month, Insider spoke with Lawrence Davis, the lead hairstylist who helped to create "Mare of Easttown's" realistic look. And he said the number one rule on-set was to make every character look like they had just woken up.

"When I came on board, I was told bed hair for everyone. I was basically told that everybody has bed hair," he said.

"Everybody was basically, you know, get up and go, and that was the whole feel of it. But I was basically told from day one: 'Bed hair,' and I had to ride with that."