Kate Winslet fast forwards a few decades in the aging process thanks to a make-up job well done on the set of her new movie, The Reader in Berlin, Germany, on Friday.

In the film, the 32-year-old British actress plays the role of Hanna Schmitz, who is described as an illiterate and former guard at Auschwitz for the major Nazi military organization under Adolf Hitler. She also works as a tram conductor toward the beginning of the story, as well.

The Reader tentatively will open in theaters nationwide on Dec. 12, 2008. Ralph Fiennes also costars.

10+ pictures inside of Kate Winslet looking old and haggard… More Here! »

Dressed in high-waisted shorts and a tied blouse, Kate Winslet braves the frigid cold while filming The Reader in chilly Cologne, Germany on Friday.

In the film, Kate, 32, plays the character of tram conductor Hanna Schmitz. Schmitz is described as an illiterate and former guard at Auschwitz for the major Nazi military organization under Adolf Hitler.

The Reader is scheduled to be released on December 12. Ralph Fiennes also costars.

Kate Winslet gives photogs a friendly wave as she films more scenes on Sunday for her new war drama, The Reader, in Goerlitz, Saxony (the easternmost federal state of Germany).

Winslet, 32, plays the role of Hanna Schmitz in the film. Schmitz is described as an illiterate and former guard at Auschwitz for the major Nazi military organization under Adolf Hitler. She also works as a tram conductor toward the beginning of the story, as well.

The Reader tentatively will open in theaters nationwide on Dec. 12, 2008.

20+ pictures inside of Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz… More Here! »

Kate Winslet confers with director Stephen Daldry on the set of their new period drama The Reader in Sasony, Germany on Tuesday.

The Reader is based on the best-selling post-WWII novel by German author Bernhard Schlink, in which a young man obsessed with an older woman is forced to face the awful truth at a war crimes trial. Kate, 32, and Ralph Fiennes, 45, star in the lead roles.

This is the film that Winslet originally turned down the offer due to a scheduling conflict with her other film Revolutionary Road. Nicole Kidman then accepted the role but later backed out because of her pregnancy. Winslet’s schedule cleared up again and then agreed to to replace Kidman. As it turns out, Daldry got his first choice!

The Reader tentatively will open Dec. 12, 2008.

Kate Winslet is replacing mom-to-be Nicole Kidman in the new drama The Reader.

“Kate was offered it first before Nicole but couldn’t do it but the dates clashed with commitments to Revolutionary Road,” an insider tells People. “So the dates changed, Nicole then got pregnant and now it has come back to Kate.”

Added the source, “Actually everyone is happy now – Nicole as she has a baby on the way, Kate because she has this great role she originally wanted to do, and the filmmakers are too.”

The Reader is about an affair between a teenage boy and an older woman in post-WWII Germany.

The “so class it hurts” British beauty Kate Winslet (in Gucci) arrives at the 16th Annual British Academy of Film and Televison/LA Cunard Britannia Awards on Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The British beauty accessorized with Neil Lane gems and a Roger Vivier clutch.

Kate was named British artist of the year during the ceremony. Congrats to Kate the Great!

Other pictures include Ms. Winslet wearing adorable purple flats arriving in Los Angeles via LAX airport earlier in the day.

30+ pictures inside of Kate Winslet @ the 2007 BAFTA/LA Awards… More Here! »

Actress beauties Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kate Winslet attend the Boss Black Spring/Summer 2008 Collection on Wednesday in New York City.

All three sat in the celebrity-packed front row at the New York fashion showing of the German fashion house. Interesting shoe selections…

Kudos to Maggie for looking like a knock-out! Best look in quite some time –

20+ pictures inside of Julianne, Maggie and Kate… More Here! »

British beauty Kate Winslet seems slightly bemused by the paparazzi attention she receives as she walks through Italian-style piazza Covent Garden in London on Friday.

Winslet, 31, doesn’t return to the silver screen until later next year, when she reunites with Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road. Set in 1950s Connecticut, the pair will play Mr. & Mrs. Frank and April Wheeler, a young married couple with two children struggling to achieve the American dream.