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Kate Winslet likens 'Mountain Between Us' story to meeting her future husband during a house fire

No, The Mountain Between Us — a “romance disaster survival film” about two desperate travelers who charter a private plane only to crash into a bitterly cold wilderness — isn’t a cautionary tale about overreacting when your flight gets canceled.

But the subject matter did change the perspective of the film’s leads, Idris Elba and Kate Winslet. “It is a reminder that you never know who you’re sitting next to … so go ahead and make eye contact and say, ‘Hi,'” Elba told us at the film’s press day during the Toronto International Film Festival (watch above). “Especially on flights or any extreme scenario, you never know who you might rely on. I think about that all the time since I’ve been on this film.”

Winslet is living proof. “I have been the person that [my character] Alex is, in the sense that I met my husband, Ned [Rocknroll], in a house fire,” she said. “And it never went back to the way that it was.”

Kate Winslet and husband Ned Rocknroll attend the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 30, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Kate Winslet and husband Ned Rocknroll attend the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 30, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The Oscar-winning Titanic actress was in the Caribbean in 2011 with her two children and then-boyfriend Louis Dowler when a fire broke out at the home they were visiting, owned by airline and music tycoon Richard Branson. It was during the chaos she met Branson’s nephew Rocknroll, an executive at his uncle’s space travel endeavor, Virgin Galactic.

“For me, just that simple notion that it’s perfectly possible to meet someone in a very extreme situation and for your life to completely change and never go back to the way that it once was…” Winslet added of the film’s personal appeal to her. “I absolutely loved that idea. I loved it.”

The Mountain Between Us opens Friday.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the harsh conditions the cast faced filming:


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