Cate Blanchett’s Golden Age

If it's not impossible, she's not interested...Playing complicated women is what this versatile, Oscar-winning actress does best.

by Timothy Rhys | Published January 26, 2007

(Page 3)

MM: You’ve directed in the theater. Do you have any desire to do more of that yourself?

CB: I just directed a play with my husband—a double-bill. He did a one-act Mamet called “Reunion” and I did a one-act Pinter called “A Kind of Alaska,” for which Judi [Dench] had actually originated the central role. Directing was very liberating—I was utterly relieved that I didn’t have to get up there and do, I could just facilitate and observe… Next year I’m directing a fantastic work by a new writer named David Harrower called “Blackbird.”

MM: How do you go about finding a character, as you did with Katharine Hepburn?

CB: Where do you start? Generally with an incredible amount of panic! I’m always saying to my husband ‘Help me—please help me! Tell me, what is my process?’ And he says “Don’t worry about it. You’ve got one. Just get on with it.” Coming out of the theater, I think that my first place is probably the text. But I’m also quite visually literate—an image can often spark something. Sometimes it’s just a conversation with a make-up artist. Sometimes it’s the dialogue that happens after an incidental word that the cinematographer says when you’re passing in the corridor. You never know what the key is, and I think that’s why actors often become superstitious.

MM: Are you superstitious?

CB: Me? Bill [Nighy, her Scandal co-star] is incredibly superstitious. I think I must be, in the sense that I know that there’s a sort of magical quality to performance of any type or style, be it dance or music or acting. Because you don’t know what’s going to set something alight, and a portion of that has to remain hidden from yourself. The most tricky thing is how you remain hidden from yourself as an actor, but yet self-aware enough to use your technique—and also not to be a fuck-off as a human being. It’s about how to have a healthy life… while maybe being desperately unhealthy in your work!

MM: Well said. From appearances, you seem to be extremely healthy in your life. Does that come from not living in America? (laughs) You’ve had a stable marriage of what, nine years? Could you have done that living in Hollywood?

CB: (laughing) God… I attribute a lot of my sanity to prioritizing my marriage.

MM: But not to geography?

CB: My father was American, so it’s not that. I think it’s that I don’t take it all too seriously. And I don’t have a sense of entitlement.

MM: Who are some of your influences?

CB: My husband… Robyn Nevin, who runs the Sydney Theatre Company, Lindy Davies, Neil Armfield, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Liv Ullman, Jane Fonda.

MM: You’ve worked with several people more than once. Who are you dying to work with again?

CB: I hope to work with Steven [Soderbergh] again, for one. I’d actually love to work with him in the theater.

MM: Speaking of theater, you just became the co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company.

CB: Well, not yet. It’s been announced, but we’re taking over in 2008 and we’ll caretake the season there and then our first program season solo will be 2009. So it’s great—we’ve got a year to be amongst the daily machinations of the company, so the “handoff” will be as smooth as possible. The internal engine of the company is really well oiled and is functioning really well.

MM: And you’ve performed there before, right?

CB: My first job was there, yeah.

MM: So with regard to your professional path, do you sometimes feel like this kind of success might not go on forever—that you could be at the apex of your career?

CB: God, I hope not.

MM: It’s a question, though, that I’d be surprised if you haven’t considered. You’ve driven yourself quite hard for a while now… and one of the films you have coming out later this year is called The Golden Age, which seems apropos. You’ve got all these high-profile movies coming out, you’ve worked with some of the greatest actors and directors in the world and you’ve made comments about how actresses in their late thirties typically don’t have as many choice roles coming their way… You’re still gorgeous, but it’s possible that these incredible opportunities may not come to you as often in your forties. Looking at where you are now, do you—

CB: (laughs) —I suppose you’ll have to ask me when I get there!

MM: But do you even care, is my question. Because that seems to be a theme in things I’ve read about you—you seem to have this great attitude where you don’t try too hard and don’t want it too much, and it comes to you anyway. So has that changed? Have you started to become accustomed to this “life at the top?”

CB: I don’t think so. I’ve always believed that directors can smell desperation better than anyone.

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