Maybe it's that she's just so darned unexpected: a star that shims the spotlight, yet so easily conjurs up images of everything from, an ethereal elfin queen to a crusading Irish journalist. Here she talks about what she'll do--and won't do--for fame, playing Hepburn opposite DiCaprio and new motherhood.
__________________________________________________________________
Most major actresses would love to be Cate Blanchett.
Not just because she so convincingly inhabitates all kinds of characters from any period--from the steely queen in Elizabeth, to the ruthlessly promiscuous mother in The Shipping News. And not just because she seems to be getting offered juicy roles by a series of world-class directors. Like Veronica Guerin, where she plays a crusading Irish crime reporter gunned down after getting too close to heroin dealers, helmed by Joel Schumacher or The Missing, Ron Howard's saga of a frontier woman who enlists her estranged father to help recover her kidnapped daughter. Or her recurring role as the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which finally sees its conclusion this December with The Return of the King. Or even the Martin Scorsese-directed The Aviator, where she gets to sink her teeth into Katharine Hepburn during that icon's torrid affair with Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
No, what must be most vexing to her peers is that she does all this with comparative anonymity. Splitting time between movie sets and her homes in England and Australia with playwright husband Andrew Upton and their firstborn son Dashiell, she's been able to keep her distance from Hollywood. She doesn't get shadowed by the paparazzi, as do Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Lopez. In fact, she barely gets recognized walking down the street. She doesn't covet scripts or court directors. None of which has in the least disrupted her stratospheric career.
How does she do it? Ask Schumacher, who met Blanchett years ago, before seeing a frame of film. To hear him tell it, she had him at hello. "Five seconds after meeting her, I saw what I'd seen in Julia Roberts and would later see in Colin Farrell," he recalls. "The hard part was waiting for the right movie." He says he knew the minute he accepted the job of directing Guerin that he was "going to Cate."
Guerin was Blanchett's first role after maternity leave--and not the easiest subject matter to return to. The real-life Guerin had her child threatened with sexual torture by the same thugs who eventually killed her. A chilling scene in the film comes when she suffers a savage beating at the hands of a quick-tempered crime boss after brazenly appearing alone on his doorstep to ask questions. "We were in awe the way she would do a very demanding, emotional and stressful role with the perfect Irish accent, and then run off the set and be mom," Schumacher says. "Because it took a long time getting where she is now, she is kind and unpretentious--not someone who stands in front of a mirror making imaginary Academy Award thank-you speeches."
If that's true, she might consider getting in practice. With her current career trajectory, it's likely she'll be forced to muster up a real one relatively soon.
Michael Fleming: It's a bit jolting to see your name up there right after the Jerry Bruckheimer logo.
Blanchett: How about just seeing the Bruckheimer logo on a film with a female lead! That was fantastic.
Q: Why did you want to play Veronica Guerin?
A: I'm intrigued by things I know nothing about. I only knew the vaguest things about her: that she was a writer and was killed. Before they sent me the script, they sent a 60 Minutes segment that was done on her. I can't explain it exactly, but I was drawn to this intangible thing you see behind her eyes. I wanted to know more about why she was doing what she was doing. I don't think it is a biopic but rather a look at what was going on in Dublin at the time...an Irish story that has nothing to do with the IRA but rather the drug problem there in the '80s.
She and other journalists were incredibly frustrated with libel laws so restrictive that they couldn't name the criminals. There had been no coordination between the departments of justice, the police, revenue commissioners and port officials to get these guys. It had to be frustrating, knowing that nothing was being done to people who literally were walking into pubs and shooting people.
Q: She seemed oblivious to the notion that they could turn that violence onto her. The scene were Guerin gets beaten up by the drug dealer is hard to watch because it's so brutal.
A: There's a willful naiveté that one has to have to do such a dangerous job. You have to almost pretend the circumstances don't exist or you can't play it out. That scene is exactly as she described it. And what great dialogue for Gilligan as he beat her. "Cunt, cunt, cunt." I talked to friends who had been beaten up, and they spoke of the rage and the humiliation that you're left with after you've gotten over the adrenaline and the fear and the shock. It's a little like a car crash. You see it happen fast-motion in the beginning, and then you watch it unfold slowly, knowing there is nothing you can do. She described the beating as feeling like it lasted 15 minutes.
Q: This film had maternal issues. Guerin was so busy writing about drug dealers that she wasn't attentive enough as a mother to know what she'd gotten her son for his birthday. Schumacher said the scene was your idea, the one Disney wanted to cut out.
A: It would have been too easy to say, "There's a woman who does it all." But if the roles had been reversed, and she had been a guy, he wouldn't have bought the skateboard; his wife would have.
Q: Actors like Mel Gibson and Denzel Washington have turned down dream parts because of the havoc it would wreak on their families. How much does the family dynamic influence what projects you take?
A: If you really truly want to do something, it's the right thing to do if the circumstances support it. A lot of people spoke to us before we had the baby, telling us how things would change, how we would shut down. I found certainly on Veronica Guerin that there is exhilaration to being able to say, We did that. The baby was born, and nine weeks later I went back. That's the thing about what I do that makes this the best job for having kids and providing them with a framework and stability. He can be on set with me when he's little. And he loved it. He loved the makeup trailer, loved being on set. The passport thing is funny, though. He went to New York with me when he was four weeks old, and we had to get a passport for him. He's three weeks old in the photograph, and this passport has to do him until he's eight. He's a baby, asleep in the picture. Why do they bother?
Q: There's a finite number of great roles for actresses. Do you seek them out?
A: I'm really fatalistic about these things. I feel that if something is right, it's going to happen. Maybe someone wants me. The sentence "I'm born to play this role" has never crossed my lips. I think that something becomes your role, through the process of filming as you flesh it out.
Q: In The Missing, you play opposite Tommy Lee Jones, who's known for being gruff and taking time to warm up to his costars. Did it take long?
A: Well...I didn't mind that, because it paralleled the relationship of the estranged father and daughter who through this journey got to know one another. This film's right up Tommy Lee's alley. That guy knows how to ride a horse, he knows how to shoot a gun. And those are two things that before making this film I knew nothing about. So on one level, I was up there as his equal. I wasn't telling him this, but I felt I had to impress him by learning these things.
Q: Were you saddle sore the whole shoot?
A: I had a few lessons here in England, but it wasn't real until I got to the States. I just rode every day, and thank Christ I was a fast learner. Riding out with the wranglers every day, mustering cattle. We rode all day, every day. And it was fan...fucking...tastic. I had a fucking ball! I really miss that horse.
Q: How was it working with Ron Howard?
A: A classic Ron Howard moment came when we were riding up this steep slope on packhorses, and we had to keep doing it over and over again. It was getting quite rocky, and there were all these young girls on horses. I thought I'd better say something. I went down and said to Ron, "You know, it's getting quite dangerous up there." He says, "I know." And then nothing. So I finally say to myself, Well I'd better get back up there--he'd do it. I had to have this tarantula crawl on me, and there's Ron on the floor, showing me how to do it, that I shouldn't be frightened of it. He doesn't ask anything of anyone that he is not prepared to do himself.
Q: This makes three big studio films coming out, and you're playing alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator. Is this a conscious effort to move to the mainstream?
A: Making movies takes so much out of you that I wouldn't make any film for such cynical reasons. You can't plan. I was going to be doing the Darren Aronofsky film The Fountain with Brad Pitt, and it just fell over. I worked with Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings because I thought his other films were genius. I do what attracts me at the time; there's not really any grand plan there.
Q: Does Galadriel have a big finish in Return of the King?
A: I think I'm in one shot. If you read the books, Galadriel was in it so little, I can't imagine I got much more to go.
Q: You worked on all three LOTR movies at once, when the project was a crazy gamble. In hindsight, were you all grossly underpaid?
A: Yeah, I suppose we were, but we knew it at the time. There was just a sense on the set that it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I felt that way about Elizabeth, another really risky undertaking. But the project was true to what it was, and it found its audience at the right time.
Q: Elizabeth was the film that turned heads for you in Hollywood.
A: I wish I could say I was desperate to play her. But no. I was three years out of drama school, working in the theater and really enjoying it. I'd just made Oscar and Lucinda with Ralph Fiennes, and thought, it can't get any better than that. At the point I saw the script, it needed a lot of work. I thought, this is going to be an ego trip for whoever plays Elizabeth, but I wasn't rushing headlong towards it...I just put this terrible wig on my head and did a screen test. I thought, Well, there's no way I'm getting that part. So I just laughed when I got the role. One doesn't think, Here comes my moment. Because who the fuck knows what moment is what.
Q: Still, you wonder if some actors read a script and go, This is going to be my Oscar.
A: I don't think anyone actually says that. Unless they're insane.
Q: So what was it like to get both Oscar and Golden Globe attention?
A: I just thought, God, I am 26, I don't want to peak! The whole thing was really fantastic, going from what felt like a really risky project to a confidence of how far we'd come. But just looking at how much one is scrutinized...it's very nerve-wracking.
Q: You have become a magnet for covers of high-fashion magazines. You must have a strong sense of style.
A: I don't think I've ever been dressed by anyone. I love to do photo shoots with great photographers. I just did a really fun shoot in Paris, for Italian Vogue, where it is all about creating an image. It's like art, working in a photographic medium.
Q: Do you have a closet full of designer clothes at home?
A: I had a joke with a friend about how many "dry clean only" labels I have, and how they all stay wrapped in the plastic because mostly I wear the same pairs of jeans, covered in baby yogurt. When we go out, I'll take off the plastic, but it's mostly wash and wear.
Q: I think it's safe to say you're not overly obsessed with vanity. You even willingly shaved your head for Heaven.
A: A bald cap wouldn't have been believable. As an actor, you can't really have a sense of consequence; you just always have to take the risks. There is comfort in playing it safe, but I don't see where the excitement is.
Q: You altered your hairline for Elizabeth, as well.
A: Now, that was a shocker. The makeup artist worried about me because I said, Okay we're going to bleach my eyebrows and eyelashes. She said, I don't think we can bleach those. I said, give it a go. Then in order to give me a high hairline, they had to shave back my hairline and then bleach back beyond that. On the weekend, I just looked like I had alopecia. That was a bit hard. I wore a lot of hats.
Q: You play Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Were you attracted to the notion of playing an icon?
A: No, really simply it was Martin Scorsese. I've never watched a Katharine Hepburn movie thinking, I must play Katharine Hepburn, but I have watched his films thinking, I'd like to work with him. It's not always a character that draws you. I've found that more than anything it's the circumstances surrounding the script. Also, the film isn't about her, it's about Howard Hughes, and this is one particular strand about his disintegration. It is romantic; he was the love of her life, which is odd because we think of Spencer Tracy. The part I'm in seems a low point in her life. She is described as box-office poison. No one wanted to hire her. I had never thought of her as being unemployable, that people would say that she couldn't act. It is inspiring, because you realize that if you get a bad review, it doesn't really matter.
Q: She passed away after you got the role. Did you have a chance to meet her?
A: I didn't. I was on my way to Montreal for a week of rehearsal, picked up the paper and saw she died. It felt odd. It's a very strange thing to play an actor, because what everyone knows is her as a personality and actress. This is about trying to get a glimpse of the person. Her whole relationship with Howard Hughes was unbelievably private, and that is all going to be in there.
Q: She had a persona that is larger than life. You seem to have been able to become a movie star, without the tabloid baggage that a lot of other actresses have to endure.
A: Some people lust for the public eye. Some people find it helps them in their work, and others don't. Some get it by default, some pursue it. I guess I prefer to be quite private. It's a myth that actors are exhibitionists. I don't think all actors are. It's the research, the working with people, that fascinates me.
Q: Now that you're a Bruckheimer graduate, might you ever do one of these big action movies?
A: Well, look, I think there's a place for every type of film, and I'd never say never
_____________________________________________________________
Michael Fleming