Kate Winslet Says 'It's a Terrible Waste of Energy' for Women to Be 'Hard on Ourselves All the Time' (Exclusive)

Kate Winslet says she aims to "always" be kind to herself.

On Thursday, Oct. 24, the 49-year-old Lee actress spoke with PEOPLE at the annual Women In Film (WIF) gala about how she works through making mistakes — and why she feels it's a "waste of energy" for women to be "hard" on themselves.

Winslet, who was the night's recipient of the Crystal Award for Advocacy in Film, says that she tries to "dig deep, keep going, and just believe in myself."

"I mean, that's honestly what I do," Winslet says. "And try not to be hard on myself. I think women in general, we're hard on ourselves all the time. It's a terrible waste of energy, and I don't ever want to look back at my life and think to myself, 'I wish I had been kinder on myself.'"

"I want to do that now, and always be doing that," she adds. "So that's what I do."

Winslet, who earned her latest trophy thanks to her performance as Lee Miller in Ellen Kuras' biopic on the 20th-century American model-turned-photojournalist, also gave PEOPLE some advice for young women in the industry while at the event.

As she explains, "mistakes are not only celebrated, but they're important."

“Because if we don't make mistakes, we can absolutely never learn. And we all make mistakes, and there is no such thing as perfect," she says. "And just to completely be themselves. Because if they can be themselves, they've always got that to hang on to and to keep them grounded.”

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After being presented her award on Thursday night by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, Winslet later recalled a meeting she had with a potential male financier for her latest biopic, as he asked her why he should "like this woman" — referring to the film's subject.

“And of course, I wanted to scream,” Winslet said onstage. “I wanted to scream. I wanted to say, ‘Oh, I'm sorry, because she's slightly saggy and middle-aged and has got the marks and scars of her life written all over her face and has PTSD that makes her dislikable? To me, of course, that makes her eternally fascinating.”

“So I would say, hold your nerve, girls. Don't take no for an answer. Don't make films with people who don't want to make your film with you. They do not deserve to be on your set," she later added. "They do not deserve that right, and keep going. And really don't take no for an answer.”

Speaking with PEOPLE last month, Winslet also reflected on her “unlikely” rise to fame, amid the 30th anniversary of her film debut in 1994’s Heavenly Creatures. “I was kind of a little street urchin who got lucky, really,” Winslet said at the time. “I'm a very unlikely success story, to be quite honest with you. I don't come from money. There isn't a great pedigree of performers behind me. I wasn't trained.”

She added that "if you'd told the 18-year-old me that I would've had this career up till now and still getting to do the thing that I love, I probably wouldn't have believed you."

"To be able to say that I'm proud of myself matters, because I think that that's something else I hope to put out there — that women should be able to stand with pride and acknowledge that and not feel like they are bigging themselves up,” she said.