Kate Winslet decided to become an actress while sat on the toilet.

The Oscar-winning star - who grew up in Berkshire, south-east England - was just five years old when she was first inspired to pursue a career in the entertainment business.

She recalled: ''I was sitting on the toilet. Truly.

''I could just hear the sounds of the household. I had three siblings and my parents. It was a very small house. They didn't have much money, and the walls were paper-thin.''

Kate used to overhear conversations while sat on the toilet and it sparked her interest in one day becoming an actress.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: ''If ever there was an argument or something, you could hear everything - 'rar rar rar.' You could even hear the neighbours through the wall. So, I was sitting on the toilet and I could just hear the busyness of life around me.

''My mum was yelling something up the stairs to my sister about her tap shoes. And I had this moment of thinking, 'Wow, if there was one of those video cameras filming and following my mum, it would seem like she was acting but she's not, she's just being herself.' And then I thought, 'Ahh. So, acting is just being. Yeah, I want to do that. That's what I want to do for a job.'''

Despite this, Kate wasn't envisioning one day becoming a big movie star.

She said: ''I never had huge ambition in the way that I thought, 'I'm going to be in movies, and this is my five-year plan.'

''My father was an actor, my mother was not an actress, but both of her parents were, she had two brothers who were sort of doing it, and all I saw were these people being happy, being different characters and playing through life.

''And because my parents didn't have any money, they didn't talk about money. So, I was never driven by that. I just thought, 'Maybe I'll do theatre, and if I'm lucky I might get an episode of something.'''