Viewers praise Kate Winslet and her daughter Mia Threapleton’s ‘moving’ performances in I Am Ruth

Thrilled viewers have praised Kate Winslet and her daughter Mia Threapleton for their ‘touching’ performances in the new family drama I Am Ruth.

The actress, 47, and her real-life daughter Mia, 22, starred in the hard-hitting Channel 4 show, which aired on Thursday night.

Kate portrays Ruth, a concerned mother, trying to help her teenage daughter Freya (Mia) through a mental health crisis after becoming consumed by the pressures of social media.

And viewers were quick to praise Kate and Mia for their “powerful” performances in the drama, which they described as a “big” portrayal of mental health and social media.

On Twitter, one person said: “Fantastic mother-daughter performance. Incredibly moving.”

Another tweeted: ‘Absolutely excellent and such an important topic. I am very happy that my daughter and I are already 5 years past that stage.’

A third said, ‘Powerful drama, really good,’ while a fourth added, ‘Great drama! Great portrait of mental health problems, the relationship between parents and children and toxic social networks.’

And a fifth wrote: ‘#IAmRuth – powerful and compelling – highlights the central issues for #family communication of the #teenbrain, #socialmedia and #mentalhealth. I will extract key sequences from it to use in teaching sessions.’

A sixth wrote: ‘I Am Ruth was a powerful and moving story that I’m sure thousands of people could relate to. It’s not easy navigating her son’s feelings and mental health, as well as the services available.’

‘Excellent drama! Great portrayal of mental health issues, parent-child relationship, and toxic social media,” added another.

I Am Ruth is a feature-length installment of the BAFTA-nominated, female-directed drama anthology series I Am, created by filmmaker Dominic Savage.

Kate co-authored the story, Conceived about the endemic mental health crisis affecting young people.

I Am Ruth follows the success of two previous I Am series, offering distinctive one-off films that explore the experience of women in emotionally raw, thought-provoking and personal moments.

It is the first time that Kate has worked with her daughter, whom she shares with her ex-husband of film director Jim Threapleton.

Speaking about working with Mia, Kate recently admitted that she was “blown away” by her daughter’s courage on set.

Kate, a veteran of the film industry, appeared on Lorraine earlier this month and said her daughter Mia didn’t need her advice and was even telling her to shut up.

The proud mother said that her daughter has a ‘power’ that she herself never had as a young actress while talking about the experience of working with Mia.

She explained: ‘In terms of acting, she didn’t need me at all. There are even moments where she looks at me and she’s like, ‘Shut up mom, let me do it!’

“It was really amazing working alongside her and really being blown away by her courage…she’s very, very powerful.”

“I think this young generation of actors, I have to say, there’s a naturalism to their acting and they’re just more courageous,” he added.

“They have a voice, they speak for themselves, and they have a power that I feel like I never had.”

‘I am very, very proud of [Mia]very proud of her, actually,’ added Kate.

The Mare of Easttown star also admitted there was “some overlap” between her real-life role as Mia’s mother and her lead on-screen role in the drama.

‘Naturally, there was going to be some degree of overlap. We just wanted to do something that would hopefully resonate with people,” she said.

She went on to talk about her own experiences as a mother, admitting that it can be “very difficult” to walk away and let children make their own decisions.

“It’s very, very hard to trust that they know how to take care of themselves these days and how to take care of them… just what to say,” she said.

“Sometimes you just have to let them do it and walk away, and as a parent it’s very difficult.”

Talking about improvising when filming the drama, Kate said that there were no written words and they had to make them up as they went along.

She explained: ‘There are no hyphenated words written, it’s terrifying. You make it up as you go, so it was a really challenging process and quite exhausting and demanding.

“What you can see is really exposed people and a lot of vulnerability.”