Cate Blanchett ‘Never, Ever’ Thought She Could Work in the Film Industry: ‘I Didn’t Think I Was That Girl’
Cate Blanchett “never, ever” thought she “could work in the film industry.”
“I was resigned, happily, to a career in theater. I didn’t think I was that girl. There was a sense women had a certain ‘shelf life’ in the film industry and a certain type of women got to parade on the screen and others didn’t,” she said at the Rotterdam Film Festival Saturday.
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Watching Visconti’s “The Stranger” awakened her love for the cinema.
“Our French teacher took us to see it. I learnt more about cinema than I did about French. I don’t think I’ve seen it since, but I was hypnotized by the cinematic storytelling. Also, we grew up in such an incredible moment in Australian cinema-making. I remember watching ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock,’ ‘Sweetie,’ ‘An Angel at My Table.’ I thought: ‘Maybe I will be able to step into that frame’.”
The Oscar-winning star caused quite a frenzy at the festival on Saturday, with ticket holders fighting to secure a good spot in the never-ending queue. Earlier that day, Blanchett also championed the new Displacement Film Fund at the fest, established to champion displaced filmmakers.
Talking about films, she admitted to having an “eclectic” taste. “I used to watch a lot of horror. Since I had children, I can’t do that at all. I love my kids, but I’m sad about that.”
She also opened up about “Rumours,” joined on the stage by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin.
“I thought I was going to your garage in Winnipeg, I packed for that, and then we were in the forest in Budapest.”
The film, directed by Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, was described by Variety as a “wildly entertaining shaggy-dog satire that sees a stuffy G7 summit devolve into a murky, muddy and strangely isolated zombie apocalypse.” It premiered at Cannes.
“We would often watch YouTube clips of the G7 summit, for some reason. There is a way that politicians on the global stage walk and gesture that just isn’t natural. It’s world-leader acting, a weird, silent movie pantomime. We had to cut out my favorite part when Macron has two cell phones, and checks texts on them both at the same time,” recalled Maddin, recalling he briefly considered scoring it “entirely with national anthems.”
“I was excited to talk to you and we talked for 61 minutes. We didn’t really speak about the project at all. I remember the first 60 minutes being very exciting. I was scared to bring up the movie and at the last minute, you said: ‘Let’s do it’.”
“Someone had to,” laughed Blanchett – but she was a fan even before that.
“This was the one where it all came together for me,” she said about Maddin’s “My Winnipeg.” “It’s beautiful, so full of longing, so melancholic. And so funny! It feels incredibly strange and familiar.”
“I am driven by self-pity,” deadpanned Maddin, also sharing his favorites.
“I’ll pretend I’m in the Criterion Closet. I’m a terrible actor. I was in a scene once with Laura Dern, Diane Kruger and Kristen Stewart, and the scene was cut from a movie. Oh, ‘Notes on a Scandal,’ it’s amazing, Cate has an affair with a high school student and Judi Dench gets really jealous. I love it, into the bag. ‘Tár,’ of course. Cate was robbed at the Oscars! What’s this, ‘Manifesto’? She plays a dozen characters, it’s unbelievable. And that’s a boxset of her plays! Thank God. And another boxset of ‘Documentary Now!’ – Cate is in two of my favorite ones. She does an unbelievably stunning Marina Abramovic.”
No stranger to the fest, Maddin was already a subject of a retrospective at IFFR back in 2003.
“ ‘Eraserhead’ was a real eye-opener. Rest in peace, David. I couldn’t sleep at night. I couldn’t believe David made a movie about me,” he said. He was “emboldened” by Lynch and Bu?uel’s work. “I could never be a writer, but [I thought that] maybe I could make films,” he said about his first inspirations.
Blanchett shared that she “loved the ritual” of playing a VHS. “There was something about knowing it was a lightly delicate object. I also loved how it degraded. It just made me watch it differently. But my most watched VHS was ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout’.”
“We are told you have to find your own voice. I would say: Steal from anyone. It’s an homage and a way of connecting through recognition. You are in dialogue with that filmmaker, actor or cinematographer. And that reference, filtered through your own experience, will be unrecognizable. This obsession with being ‘original’ or breaking new ground can often be a trap,” she noted, also confessing she “learns more from her failures.” Still, the festival spotlighted her many successes with a clip celebrating her work.
“I just shit my pants. Why did you work with me?! God,” said Maddin afterwards, visibly impressed. Also claiming that she “kicked Timothée Chalamet’s ass” as Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There.”
“I am far more comfortable with people coming up to me, saying: ‘I am sorry I haven’t seen your movie yet.’”
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