Kate Winslet's daughter started acting without anybody knowing they were related: That was 'important for her self-esteem'

• Kate Winslet's daughter has kept the fact that her mother is famous under wraps while auditioning.
• Winslet said her daughter Mia Threapleton's different last name let her fly "under the radar."
• The people who cast Threapleton in a film last year had no idea they were related, Winslet said.

Kate Winslet's daughter, Mia Threapleton, has been able to fly "under the radar" in her Hollywood career because she has a different last name than the "Ammonite" star, Winslet said.

In an appearance on the British TV host Lorraine Kelly's show, Winslet revealed that Threapleton, 20, had recently started acting.

"She's away just now in the Czech Republic about to start work on a little TV series over there," Winslet said.

"That's been a wonderful thing that I think I knew was coming," Winslet added. "Actually, I think I always suspected. And then sure enough, a couple years ago, she turned around and said, 'I think I'd like to give it a go.'"

According to the "Titanic" actress, Threapleton's last name has allowed her to keep her famous mother a secret while breaking into the industry on her own merits.

Threapleton had a lead role in the 2020 thriller "Shadows." She told Variety in November that it was "the first film I'd received an audition for, and the first script I had ever been given to read."

"What's been really great for her is she has a different surname, so that initial job out of the gate, she slipped right under the radar," Winslet told Kelly. "And the people who cast her had absolutely no idea that she was my daughter."

Winslet said it was "most important for her self-esteem" for her daughter to get the role without revealing her celebrity parent.

Winslet was married to Threapleton's father, the theater director Jim Threapleton, from 1998 to 2001. She was married to the "Revolutionary Road" director Sam Mendes from 2003 to 2011 - they have a 17-year-old son together. In 2012, she tied the knot with Edward Abel Smith, with whom she also has a son, Bear, 7.