Kate Winslet says being caught in the fire on Sir Richard Branson's private island was like being on a movie set.

The Oscar-winning actress and her children - Mia, 11, and seven-year-old Joe - were staying at the British businessman's home on Necker Island last August when it became engulfed in an inferno in the early hours of one morning.

Recalling, the incident the 'Titanic' star said: "I really did think to myself, 'Someone is going to say cut in a minute. Oh my God, no one is saying cut.'

"I thought, 'The wind machine is really good, but that rain is going to look so fake because there's way too much of it. And this fire - it looks so real.' It was more terrifying than the press actually knew.

"If one of Richard's nephew's, Jack, hadn't woken up and heard this loud bang - which was the windows exploding - he raised the alarm. Or if the wind was blowing in the other direction and our rooms had filled with smoke ... who knows."

While it could have been a tragic turn of events, Kate - who met her current boyfriend, Ned Rocknroll, on the island - can now see the funny side.

She told TV show 'Live! with Kelly': "Nobody was hurt, except Richard, who woke up and saw the house across from his, with us and all his family in there, and got up and ran, naked, right into a cactus. He got this huge cactus needle stuck in his thigh. It was so much fun."