Leave it to Kate Winslet to make a convenience store sound like Shangri-La.
In an episode of the Los Angeles Times podcast “The Envelope” out Wednesday, the “Mare of Easttown” star said that she fully embraced Pennsylvania culture for her role as Mare Sheehan, a detective in the HBO limited series who is investigating the murder of teenage girl in a fictional small town located in non-fictional Delaware County.
The British actor said that she decided to subscribe to the Delco Times, Delaware County’s daily newspaper, to better understand her character. And one thing she noticed while reading it every day was that there were a whole lot of articles mentioning Wawa, a beloved gas station-convenience store-fast food chain headquartered in ― where else ― the town of Wawa, in Delaware County.
Winslet quickly found herself incredibly intrigued.
“It almost felt like a mythical place … Wawa,” she told the podcast, adding: “By the time I got there, I was like, ‘It’s real!’ Walking into a Wawa ultimately felt like, it was kind of an honor, in a funny way, because to me that was the heart of Delco. So to finally walk through the door of a Wawa; I don’t know why I felt like, ‘Oh, yes, I’m here, I belong. This is where it’s at. Wawa.’”
Although Winslet said she mainly ordered coffee at Wawa, her “Mare of Easttown” co-star Evan Peters (who plays Detective Colin Zabe)l decided to dabble in Wawa’s hoagie selection.
“He would say, ’Ugh, you gotta try the Gobbler,” Winslet said of Peters. “And it was this gigantic sub, basically — or hoagie, this huge hoagie. It’s basically a Thanksgiving meal in a hoagie. He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I just eat that thing and I pass out.’ And I’d be like, ‘I’m not surprised! I’m not surprised, Evan!’”
Just in case you’re not familiar with the Gobbler, it appears to be a seasonal sub decked out with a whole lot of turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
It appears to be a very large sandwich — but it’s not that big. Winslet, a Gobbler, and, say, a Leonardo DiCaprio could all easily fit on a door floating in the icy Atlantic Ocean.