The five-time Oscar nominee was originally offered the role but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Nicole Kidman was hired for the role but stepped down after becoming pregnant. Winslet then reached an agreement and is starring in the role of a woman in post-war Germany who has an affair with a teen-age boy. The woman is later prosecuted for war crimes after it emerges that she was a guard at a concentration camp.
"The Reader" co-stars Ralph Fiennes and upcoming German actor David Kross. Stephen Daldry is the director.
