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Kate Winslet Reveals Daughter Mia, 20, Slips 'Under the Radar' as an Actress with Different Last Name

Neilson Barnard/Getty; Ascent Films

Kate Winslet's daughter is quietly following in her mom's footsteps.

Winslet, 45, let slip that her 20-year-old daughter Mia Threapleton started acting without anyone noticing since she has a different last name. Winslet shares Threapleton with ex-husband Jim Threapleton.

"[She's] 20 and acting," Winslet told Lorraine Kelly on her show recently. "She's away now in the Czech Republic about to start on a TV series over there."

"I think I knew [it] was coming, I always suspected," Winslet said of Threapleton following in her footsteps. "And then a few years ago she turned around and said, 'I'd like to give it a go.' "

With a different last name, Winslet said Threapleton's Hollywood connection was undetected and she landed her first role on her own.

Threapleton most recently starred in the 2020 movie Shadows.

"What's great for her is she has a different surname so she slipped under the radar and the people who cast her didn't know she was my daughter and that was important for her self-esteem, of course," Winslet added.

Winslet was married to Threapleton's dad from 1998 to 2001 and later married American Beauty director Sam Mendes in 2003. She welcomed son Joe, now 17, that same year before splitting from Mendes in 2011. Winslet is now married to Edward Abel Smith, with whom she shares son Bear, 7.

In an interview with Variety last year, Threapleton revealed Shadows was the very first part she ever auditioned for.

"I had just finished school, was free of exam hell, and felt excited, nervous and ready to start auditioning for things, and hoping that the opportunities to audition would come my way," she said. "I just hoped I would get the chance to do what I had wanted to do for so long!"

Ascent Films

As for her roots in Hollywood, Threapleton said visiting her Oscar-winning mom on set was a special treat that didn't happen often.

"I never actually spent much time around sets that my mum was working on," she said. "It was always a special treat. It's a very different experience when it is happening to you, and not just something I was getting to observe from time to time. I really understand why my mum has always impressed on us how hard the work is. She is right! And I loved every second of it.