‘Mare of Easttown’: Kate Winslet Deserves Credit for Mare’s Look

HBO’s spellbinding new crime drama Mare of Easttown stars Academy Award winner Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a down-on-her-luck detective from the Philly suburbs. While a lot of people have been lauding Winslet’s hard work nailing the persnickety Delco accent, the British actress also transformed herself physically to play Mare. Gone are Winslet’s glamorous red carpet looks and softly romantic brand of beauty. Mare Sheehan dresses in a low key, utilitarian way that ignores fashion in favor of function. And Mare’s look is 100% Kate Winslet’s doing.

Created by writer Brad Inglesby, Mare of Easttown follows its titular character as she attempts to juggle her messy family life and even messier case load as a small town detective. As a teenager, Mare scored a winning shot in a high school basketball game that made her a hometown hero. Twenty-five years later and she’s dealing with grief over a lost son, stress over a spirited teen daughter, and the news that her ex-husband is remarrying. Meanwhile, Mare has to deal with calls about peeping toms and murdered teen moms at work. Needless to say she has little time for self-care.

Mare’s look is a direct swerve away from the put-together urban glamour of other iconic TV detectives. Sweats and flannels are worn instead of sharp suits. Mare’s hair is in dire need of a cut and color, and make up is only dug out of drawers on special occasions. Aesthetically, Mare’s look reflects her own emotional burnout in the story. According to Mare of Easttown director Craig Zobel, it was (mostly) Kate Winslet’s idea.

“I give Kate a lot of this credit. She had a very clear idea and she’s very involved in her hair and makeup decisions and stuff,” Zobel said. “There were choices that were made — even like how her eyebrows are — that we were adjusting in order to kind of make her feel appropriate in terms of wardrobe.”

While many TV characters dress to impress, Mare does the opposite. Perhaps for the simple reason that she’s already known as “Miss Lady Hawk.”

“She’s kind of done with the fight where she needs to impress you. Like that happened already,” Zobel said. “So a lot of things just were like, this is what’s comfortable. This is what was clean.”

Winslet might have been in control of Mare’s pared-down look, but Zobel had one idea that made it into a hilarious shot in this upcoming Sunday’s episode.

“There’s the scene in Episode 2 where [Mare]’s going out on a date. In the script, it said something I think along the lines of, she tries on a couple of different outfits or something and I actually went to Kate and I was like, ‘What if we did this thing where you like don’t even have like lipstick anymore?'”

“I told the prop person, ‘Give me blue lipstick. Like something that she would never wear.’ Just because that seems character-wise like where she was. Like she’s not a person that’s doing a lot of that kind of self care. It’s Rolling Rock beers,” Zobel said.

Mare of Easttown Episode 2 will premiere on HBO and HBO Max this Sunday, April 25.

Where to stream Mare of Easttown