Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
A closet full of Armani, but home life suits her
Actress and fashion icon explores ’70s women’s movement in ‘Mrs. America’
ONE day, she’s in Armani private collection. The next, she’s in her PJs, hanging out with her husband, Andrew Upton, and kids, Edith, 4, Ignatius, 11, Roman, 15, and Dashiell, 17.
“There are times I feel like Cinderella … where it all has to go back by midnight. The next day, I’m putting sunscreen on a squirming 4-year-old, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” says Cate Blanchett, the 50-year-old two-time Oscar winner, fashion icon and star of FX’s “Mrs. America.”
The nine-part limited series, debuting April 15, explores the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment through the point of view of key women. Blanchett is an executive producer and plays Phyllis Schlafly — who opposed feminism and campaigned against ratification of the ERA. Blanchett and her family currently are sheltering in place at her home in England to protect against the novel coronavirus.
Review-Journal: What is your idea of a great Sunday?
Cate Blanchett: I’m a working parent, so Sunday is dedicated to my family. At night, I love to get into my pajamas and read to my daughter. Bliss!
Tell us about “Mrs. America.”
I’m a passionate lover of history. I don’t think you can, in any way, understand the present unless you look into the past. This series is designed to ask questions. How do you feel? It’s all about conversation … not just for women, but for men. The Equal Rights Amendment is really about justice, so I think it’s a very interesting thing to ask: What was so terrifying about the notion of equality, and how do we view the Constitution?
How did you view conversations in the media throughout the years about women’s rights?
I do believe, in the 1970s, there was a strong culture of robust public debate, which isn’t always the case today, and not just in America. We’ve got haranguing matches and shouting, but we haven’t got robust public discourse. These women actually talked and debated these things through. They didn’t always agree with one another, but they discussed.
You’ve been asked if you liked Phyllis Schlafly.
It doesn’t matter whether I like Phyllis or not. Whether I like or dislike a character, whether its Phyllis or
Elizabeth I is utterly irrelevant. It’s not my place. My place is to present a character, warts and all.
How do you get so deeply into character?
A lot of it is unconscious. I think the material tells you what you have to do. The other actors tell you what you have to do. I don’t have any particular process. It’s very eclectic. … I am glad that I went to drama school because it gives you a bag of tricks. The thing is, I get bored with my bag of tricks very early on. Then I just sit quietly with the material and let it tell me what to do.
Do you enjoy being a fashion icon?
I do like wearing a nice frock. I’ve had the great fortune to have a long relationship with Mr. Armani. But you get to the point where it takes longer and longer as the years go by to get ready!
Any inklings that your children will grow up to become actors?
For a long time, Andrew and I thought the children would grow up to be accountants and lawyers and have regular jobs. But there is a wonderful circus aspect to being in the theater and around that wonderful sense of fantasy. I wouldn’t object.
How do you choose roles?
A role should leave you gobsmacked. You should want to take a role by the teeth, and at the same time, you also have to risk failure each and every time out.
You’ve said that you are your harshest critic.
What moves me forward is going into that great unknown creatively. When it’s over, I’ll still pick apart the parts that don’t make me happy. I think acting is about really chewing it. There are times I go home and wonder, “Did you chew that enough?”