In pursuit of new memories

Kate WINSLET didn’t set out to win moviegoers’ hearts and minds with her role in the dreamlike, seriocomic “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” But the British actress did calibrate her performance -- as an emotionally confused woman who has all the memories of her ex-boyfriend erased -- so as to preclude one particular kind of crowd reaction.

“I didn’t want to irritate the audience,” Winslet explained. “When you’re playing someone who’s that neurotic and eccentric, the combination of emotions can become incredibly irritating. It would have been easy to have made her incredibly out there and brash and in your face.”

Alternately slapstick and vulnerable, the performance opposite Jim Carrey netted the 29-year-old her fourth Oscar nomination in 10 years. (And Winslet’s second nod for best actress, after 1997’s “Titanic.”)

Best known for portraying Victorians damsels in English period dramas, Winslet said she had to convince director Michel Gondry that she could convincingly disguise her plummy British vocal inflections beneath the flat nasal tones of an American accent. The role also required her to alternate between hair dyed blue and pumpkin orange

“I was so amazed that Michel saw beyond the period pieces and through the corsets and gave me this opportunity,” Winslet said. “I thought, ‘I’m gonna get that accent down because that is going to be my giveaway -- if I slip up ... I’m lost.’ ”

“I just read that script so many times and filled my head with the idea of how I wanted to be, that I really free-fell,” Winslet emitted a gasp-like laugh, “and let my creativity parachute open.”

Winslet’s nomination is notable because it bucks academy voting trends. Historically, Oscar voters have tended to overlook comedic performances, especially in the best actress category.

Further, “Eternal Sunshine” was released last March -- an eternity ago by awards season standards -- causing many critics to label Winslet’s nomination surprising, even if deserved.

“To be remembered for it -- because it came out so long ago -- I could not be happier or more overwhelmed,” she said.

Having also been a best supporting actress Oscar contender for 1995’s “Sense and Sensibility” and 2002’s “Iris,” Winslet is no stranger to the nominee gantlet of swag suites, red carpets and wardrobe cross-examination by Joan Rivers.

But this year, everything old seems new again.

“I’ve been through it before and nominated in the past, and there’s some part of me that should be taking it in my stride,” said Winslet, who is married to Oscar-winning “American Beauty” director Sam Mendes and recently gave birth to her second child, Joe. “But ... because Clementine was so hard for me and meant so much, it feels like the first time I’ve ever been nominated. It’s an amazing feeling!”