Entertainment Movies Kate Winslet Reveals She 'Took Last Year Off to Be with My Family': I Needed a 'Reset' Kate Winslet opened up to Variety about taking a break from acting in 2021 following her award-winning role on HBO's Mare of Easttown By Jen Juneau Jen Juneau Jen Juneau is a News and Movies Staff Writer at PEOPLE. She started at the brand in 2016 and has more than 15 years' professional writing experience. People Editorial Guidelines Published on March 8, 2022 12:08PM EST Kate Winslet. Photo: Getty Kate Winslet is coming off a year of rest and relaxation. The 46-year-old actress recently told Variety that following her award-running run as the title character in HBO's Mare of Easttown, she took a break from acting in 2021. "I took last year off to be with my family and to recover from Mare of Easttown. It was good to have a bit of a reset," said Winslet. But the Emmy and Oscar winner "love(s) [her] job," and said in the interview, published Tuesday in honor of International Women's Day, that she's "really ready to throw [herself] back into it." "For an actor, there's nothing as thrilling as being in a room with other actors," Winslet added. "I am craving that again. But I've got heaps going on this year so I'm excited to get going." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown (2021). Michele K. Short/HBO Kate Winslet Says "There Have Been Conversations" About Possible Mare of Easttown Season 2 Aside from the work involved in the acting component, Winslet — who's mom to sons Bear, 8, and Joe, 18, plus daughter Mia, 21 — told emmy magazine last April that he had to "stay very fit" to take on the role of detective Mare Sheehan in HBO's limited series Mare of Easttown. The actress explained that she had to stay on top of her health "not because we necessarily have to see a fit body" but because she had to do "a lot of running" in the show. "I had to physically do a lot of tackling and fighting and arresting people, you know, taking huge grown men down to the ground," Winslet said. And although she wanted her character to look strong, Winslet didn't want to make her body seem unattainable. "It's nice to sense that Mare was once strong in her youth, but I didn't want to make her an impossible, superhuman forty-something-year-old," she said. "Mostly women aren't like that. We do what we can in the midst of the juggle of everything else." RELATED VIDEO: Can You Believe That Kate Winslet Has Looked Oscar Perfect Since 1996? Winslet will soon be seen in the upcoming Avatar sequels.