Kate Winslet Recalls Unusual Encounter with Eminem

She didn’t want to lose herself in the whirlwind of Hollywood.

Kate Winslet, now 50, recently shared a peculiar moment from 2004 during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show. She reminisced about hosting Saturday Night Live when Eminem was the musical guest on an episode that aired October 30 of that year.

“Eminem actually asked me to shave his butt,” she revealed, adding a unique twist to her story.

This strange request came just a week after Ashlee Simpson’s notorious lip-syncing incident on the same NBC show.

With laughter from the audience, Norton playfully asked if a handheld razor was involved. Winslet responded, “Yes, he did!”

“He said, ‘Can you shave my ass?’” Winslet recalled. She humorously retorted, “Sorry, I don’t do personal grooming.” It seems she wasn’t going to dive into celebrity antics anytime soon.

Interestingly, Winslet has not returned to host SNL in the two decades since that event.

“I’ve never told that story in public before. Here you go!” she quipped to the audience.

At that time, she was promoting Johnny Depp’s film Finding Neverland and had just 24 hours to prepare for her SNL appearance. It was right after Simpson’s mishap, and Winslet performed a “sing and tap dance” on stage while Simpson had infamously lip-synced live. It’s kind of surreal how these moments can overlap, isn’t it?

Simpson, 41, later reflected on her performance in a February 2024 interview on a podcast with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen. She recounted that she was set to perform on a variety show but couldn’t sing because “two nodes collided with each other,” which left her voiceless.

She explained that she informed the show’s executives about her condition but felt undue pressure from higher-ups to perform her hit song, “Piece of Me,” using pre-recorded tracks.

“I think that was a humbling moment for me,” she admitted.