Kate Winslet and Son Joe, 21, Are All Smiles at the London Premiere of Their New Film Goodbye June

Kate Winslet and her son enjoyed a special outing together to celebrate their new project.

On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Avatar: The Way of Water actress, 50, and her son Joe Anders, 21, were all smiles as they posed together on the red carpet at the London premiere for Goodbye June. The new film, a holiday drama written by Joe and directed by his mom, follows a family navigating messy dynamics in the face of potential loss.

The mother-son duo both wore sleek black looks for the event. Winslet looked chic in a black off-the-shoulder dress paired with a gold belt, while Joe dressed in a black suit and a white button-up shirt.

The actress and mom of three recently chatted with host Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live about her directorial debut, sharing what it was like working with her son on the project. Winslet shared that when it came time to find a director, she couldn’t let the project go, adding she wanted her son to experience his story coming to life.

“When it came to the point of the screenplay being ready, I was going to produce it. I was going to play the character of Julia, and I knew that we were in a position to find a director. And I suddenly couldn’t let it go,” she explained. “And I said to him, look, I would love to direct it because when you give it to a director, it becomes theirs, which is exactly the right thing that should happen. But I didn’t want that for him.”

“I wanted him to remain a part of it. I wanted him to experience seeing this beautiful thing that he had created come to life,” she added. “And he happens to be very, very smart about film, and having him there with me every day was just fantastic.”

The Divergent actress went on to share more about the process of creating the project, sharing that they would read through scenes he re-drafted and act them out together.

“We would read it through together and figure out what should stay and what should go and what was funny and what wasn’t funny enough or etc. And that process was glorious,” she shared. “And we learned different things about one another in this working capacity.”

Responding to Kimmel’s question about whether she and her son had any disagreements on set, the proud mom said that they didn’t. The Mare of Easttown actress added the major lesson she had to learn during filming.

“I had to learn how to say things to him in a sensitive way if I thought maybe something could work differently or whatever,” she said. “And he would also disagree with me and he would say, ‘Well, I didn’t you know I don’t know if I saw it like that.’ And I’d say, ‘Just hang on, hang on, hang on.'”

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In addition to Joe, Winslet is a mother to two other children: son Bear, 11, and daughter Mia, 25. She shares Mia with ex-husband Jim Threapleton, son Joe with Mendes and son Bear with husband Edward Abel Smith.

Throughout the years, the actress preferred to keep her children out of the spotlight, especially when they were younger. In 2017, Winslet said that she thrived off being a hands-on mom. The actress told Harper’s Bazaar that she doesn’t “have a chef or a driver or things like that” because she would rather take care of those responsibilities herself.

“I would be so unhappy if I had those things and I wouldn’t feel like I was being a real person anymore,” she said. “Just because I am in a position where I can have those things, it doesn’t mean that I have to. It just wouldn’t be right for my family — I know that my kids would absolutely hate it. I want them to look back and remember my chicken soup and my packed lunches and that it was me on the school run.”