Case Narrative

A Consenting Juveniles narrative is a first-hand account reporting the words of the research subject on his or her experience.

Kate Winslet and other Reader cast and director

Kate Winslet and other Reader cast and director

Source:   Three out of Four Reader Stars Confess to Teenage Affairs with Old People
by Bennett Marcus
New York Magazine, December 4, 2008
www.nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/12/three_out_of_four_the_reader_s.html

Bernhard Schlink’s novel, The Reader, told the story of a 15-year-old boy in post-war Germany who had an affair with an adult woman.

Kate Winslet played the older woman in the movie based on the book. In reporting the following quote, New York Magazine stated that the lover of Winslet’s youth was presumably the actor, Stephen Tredre, who died of bone cancer in 1997.

I had a relationship that was one of the most important relationships of my life from the age of 15 to nearly 20 with a man who was almost thirteen years older than me. He was very much the love of my life during those years.

Ralph Fiennes played the adult version of Michael, the boy in the story. He acknowledged having had a similar relationship in his own youth.

I did, actually, yes. I wasn’t so screwed up as this guy I played in the movie. In my life it was okay; I was all right — I’m standing here talking to you.

Swedish-born actress Lena Olin played an Auschwitz survivor in the movie, as well as that woman’s daughter twenty years later. She told the magazine about her relationship as a teenager with a much older man.

I think I was 16, and he was maybe 40 … 35. But back in Sweden, 15 is the age of consent. I was 16, I wasn’t a child.

Director Stephen Daldry also acknowledged having an affair as a teenager, but was less forthcoming with details.

You know, I did. I’m not going to tell you how old I was and I’m not going to tell you how old the other person was, but it was all good. No negative effects for me.


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