MY LIFE IN 10 PICTURES
"Work, if you love it, is actually really invigorating"- cate
AFTER GROWING UP “trying to be Nancy Drew,” Catherine Elise Blanchett wanted to investigate what was beyond her life in Melbourne, Australia. “I didn’t know where I was going at all,” she recalled. “I just took off.” Although
she traveled the globe, Cate eventually found her place in the world back home, first onstage, then on TV and film before heading to Hollywood. And through it all, the 51-year-old actress and mother of four learned to revel in her wanderlust. “I think that’s what I love about my life,” she revealed. “There’s no maniacal master plan. It’s just
unfolding before me.”
1 1993 EARLY STAGE Cate’s break came in the Sydney theater via David Mamet’s provocative play Oleanna, which she initially thought was a “misogynistic piece of crap.”
2 1997 STAR
APPEAL For Oscar and Lucinda, Cate insisted she wasn’t nervous opposite Ralph Fiennes. “I tend to have this perverse reaction to authority and stress: I become more confident and clear when a challenge is enormous.”
3 1998 CLEARING THE HEIR “To become a queen means to erase your past in a lot of ways,” said Cate of her approach to Elizabeth, for which she got her first Oscar nod.
4 2001 EARS TO YOU The Lord of the Rings trilogy “was like stepping into a video game,” recalled Cate (with Elijah Wood).
She played the elf Galadriel for one reason. “I basically did it so that I could have the ears,” which she had bronzed as a souvenir.
5 2004 KATE EXPECTATIONS
She won an Oscar for The Aviator (with Leonardo DiCaprio), but found playing icon Katharine Hepburn “completely and utterly terrifying.” The most difficult part? Learning Kate’s distinctive way of talking: “It’s like playing a symphony,” Cate recalled.
6 2007 DON’T LOOK BACK “The idea of playing Bob Dylan was just so utterly ludicrous, of course, I had to take it,” Cate said of I’m Not There, which earned her yet another Oscar nod.
7 2009 TWOWAY
STREET In the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, Cate’s role as Blanche DuBois also revived her love of theater. “You see [actors] sweat. You see them breathe…and on a good night, you’ll laugh and you’ll cry.”
8 2014 BLUE CHIP
“Working with Woody Allen is like an emotional strip club without the cash,” quipped Cate about her Blue Jasmine director. She cashed in on her part with a second Oscar.
9 2015 IDOL CHATTER Cate’s costar in Carol, Rooney Mara, was initially hesitant to work with her. “Usually it’s not that great to meet your idols and work with them; it’s kind of a letdown,” Rooney said. “This definitely wasn’t. She’s quick and witty and funny.”
10 2020 OPPOSITES ATTRACT
She got an Emmy nod for her portrayal of conservative icon and staunch antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly in the FX series Mrs. America. “Schlafly and I are, let’s say, two guests you wouldn’t invite to the same dinner party. But that was precisely why I was attracted to the role.”