Cate Blanchett: Talking about my father’s death would be “grossly opportunistic”

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These are photos from Cate Blanchett’s appearance yesterday on the cover of the New York Times’ Style Magazine. Lovely, beautiful, epic Cate. Cate makes every photo shoot special. Cate can pose her ass off. Cate looks unique and different in every photo, ever.

I haven’t gotten a chance to read every word of Cate’s interview with the mag – it’s a really long article! You can read it here, and I’ll probably get a chance to read the whole piece later today. I’m looking forward to it! Surprisingly, Cate is not really what I consider to be a “good interview.” She’s not dumb, and she doesn’t say stupid things because she can’t help herself. She’s not full of herself, and she consistently comes across as a normal working mom who is a bit eccentric. She doesn’t enjoy talking about herself, she’s not a self-obsessed narcissist, and she seems to insist on keeping areas of her life private. All of that makes her a good person, a role model, a wonderful actress, but a boring interview. Here are some quick highlights:

*She’s a dignified, pre-red-carpet star caught in a celebrity-tweeting culture, with the result that she’s learned how to promote her role of the moment — in this instance, that of a ruthless C.I.A. agent in the thriller “Hanna,” directed by Joe Wright — without seeming to be promoting anything, least of all herself. I dutifully bring up the subject of the film and mention that I found it beautiful looking but disappointing. Blanchett says she took “Hanna” on “because it was the best first 20 pages of any script I’d read — brutal, terrifying and suspenseful.” And then she’s happy to move on to other matters. It’s an art all its own, this straining toward the shadows of self-effacement when you’ve been shoved into the limelight, there’s no doubt about that.

*Blanchett does admit to liking clothes — “I love dressing up,” she says, “although that doesn’t mean necessarily on the school run”.

She goes through her paces like a trouper, despite her fatigue and having suffered through a spider bite, investing each shot with a narrative arc, calling on the skill she puts into delivering information on screen about characters as diverse as Queen Elizabeth I, Charlotte Gray, Veronica Guerin, the elf queen Galadriel, Katharine Hepburn and Bob Dylan. Blanchett seems patient and unfussy but also keeps at a slight remove from the proceedings in her regally self-possessed way. (When I asked her whether she felt nervous about giving an award at the Oscars, she answered with a simple “No.”)

So, over soft-boiled eggs (Blanchett orders a side of spinach) the next day, I bring up the biceps issue and the more general one of her svelteness. Blanchett doesn’t admit to dieting (wouldn’t it be nice if someone other than Carrie Fisher did?) but does avow how she doesn’t have a big sweet tooth. She also explains that she and her husband gave each other running shoes for Christmas and have renewed their commitment to exercise; Blanchett spends a half-hour on the elliptical trainer four days a week. “I don’t enjoy it,” she says, “but I certainly have more energy.” We go on to talk of other things, of the perils of performing versus writing (Upton is a writer as well as director), the limitations of psychotherapy (she’s never been in “very intensive” therapy), how death doesn’t solve anything (“I’m not interested,” she says, striking a rare note of annoyance, “in using my father’s death as some touch point for why I’ve become an actor — it’s grossly opportunistic”) and the crucial importance of timing, especially when it comes to romance. “Don’t you think like most things, like comedy, like sex, like anything, it’s about timing? I think we collided with each other,” she adds, referring to her husband, “at what turned out to be the perfect time. We knew each other socially and we didn’t get on and we played poker one night and I don’t know how we ended up kissing but we did and he asked me to marry him about three weeks later and we got together in the same spirit. . . . Maybe I’ve got a lack of consequence,” she adds, “a healthy lack of consequence.”

[From The New York Times]

Ooh, she works out! I would love to work out with her. I imagine she would be a cool workout buddy. And I love what she says about her father’s death – it’s so refreshing to see an actor who is unwilling to whore out personal tragedy for the benefit of their “craft”. I love her.

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NYT Style photos courtesy of The Fashion Spot.

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38 Responses to “Cate Blanchett: Talking about my father’s death would be “grossly opportunistic””

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  1. curmudgeon says:

    Kaiser
    If every actress were as pleasant sounding and intelligent as this woman,
    You’d be out of a job.

  2. Kaiser says:

    I know! Well, I’d still get to write about fashion!

  3. Ell says:

    She’s perfect.

    Love the first b/w shot but what’s going on in the last one, I’m not sure what she’s supposed to be doing???

  4. OtherChris says:

    I like the bottom picture except for the boots.

  5. really says:

    she is AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL naturally, and just PURE TALENT. love her!

  6. Rita says:

    I don’t care for the cover photos but eveything you said about her is exactly why I like her and find her very special.

  7. kazoo says:

    but…isn’t she talking about it by saying she won’t talk about it? LOL.

    i love her, though.

  8. smith says:

    Huge girl crush. You can catch glimpses of all the characters housed inside her magnificant self.

  9. jc126 says:

    She’s very classy in real life, too. I know someone who once met her and her husband. He’s an art expert. He mistook her for Kate Winslet, and she never once corrected him or anything. Lol.

  10. carrie says:

    many actors dislike to talk about their private lifes

  11. Nanea says:

    CATE!

    I never got what made her pick out some of the more particular clothes, this dress-up thing explains it. Unlike most people though she can wear almost everything because she’s so self-confident.

  12. serena says:

    OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love her with this new haircut! It’s kind of refreshing!

  13. Solveig says:

    @jc126 (9) LOL! Priceless.

    Everything she does is perfection, I can’t remember a movie where she’s less than perfect.
    And I don’t think she’s boring, when I read her interview I feel like there’s something behind her words, she’s witty and mysterious.
    By the way, “Hanna” is getting good reviews.

  14. marge says:

    even her teeth are pretty

    damn!

  15. dorothy says:

    What a class act.

  16. original kate says:

    “Blanchett spends a half-hour on the elliptical trainer four days a week.”

    peasant. as any goop will tell you, anything less than 90 minutes per day is lazy. cate must be a hater, too.

    in other news, my girl crush on ms. blanchett just continues on…

  17. Tanya says:

    ADORE HER! Pure class, pure talent, pure style. She’s totally dreamy in every way.

  18. geekychic says:

    amazing, amazing woman!
    i don’t know how any woman can not love cate.
    she is famous (not a celebrity, it’s too lowly for her) for all the right reasons.
    take that, GOOP!!!

    btw; i love her even more for saying that she doesn’t like to exercise. i’m 24, and i am so not the exercise type that i literally cringe when i think about my older days. i even blackmailed my Other to start with me (he was a high-school athlete)..but i doubt he’ll succeed. i hope that the 30-years something fattening willmake me.

  19. JenJen says:

    She was great in “the Gift”, I never get tired of watching it.

    Knowing now what a merkin is, the writer gets kudos for keeping her name.

  20. Anti-icon says:

    “I have a healthy lack of consequence” ….

    is a great way of saying it. It’s like she isn’t going to indulge the dumb ass scrutiny of why she makes the choices she does. I love her.

  21. TQB says:

    Any day with at least one Cate post becomes a good day.

    LOVE the haircut. Love… sigh, everything. Just love.

  22. Annaloo says:

    She is soooo what I needed to rinse the saccharine film out of my head after reading the Gwyneth posts.

  23. KateNonymous says:

    That is awesome. And I love the fact that she says right out that she works at looking the way she does. Regardless of what she eats, her discussion of exercise puts her light years ahead of the ninnies who say, “Oh, I’m just lucky.” Yes, Cate Blanchett probably also won the genetic lottery–but clearly she works hard at making the most of what she got. Good for her for saying so. It’s honest.

  24. K-MAC says:

    she is darling, well spoken, adorable and plain choice (as in fierce) in her way of life! I love it!

  25. Awake says:

    Horse. Shit.

    She’s mannered and disingenuous.

  26. Twez says:

    I love her hair. That’s what I’m going for with my current cut, but it never looks that stylish.

  27. Jess says:

    Ah, love Cate! And what an interesting point you brought up – how ‘nice’ actors can be boring interviews. I never thought about it that way.

  28. Lh says:

    Could I please just look like her? Is that too much to ask? 🙂

  29. Runs with Scissors says:

    She’s fascinating. I also loved her in The Gift. She’s vulnerable and strong at the same time, it’s mesmerizing.

  30. Anne says:

    The jeans she is wearing in the last picture cost $8,000 according to the article!

    I do love her though; real class.

  31. Ruffian9 says:

    Boring? Hells no.

    She sounds intelligent, articulate, and grounded. I enjoy her interviews immensly. Paltrow? I made it half way through her interview.

  32. Truthzbetta says:

    How can someone this classy be on the same page as your polygamy story?

    Cate makes sense. Then the illegal human trafficker next post over? There’s tons of weird stuff in the world you don’t have to cover and celebrate one click to the left.

    Cate good. Polygamy, jailable abuse of kids and women. So simple. It’s kinda even worse than Mel Gibson, does that clear it up for ya?

  33. Becky says:

    Wow-that was refreshing! It’s great to see that there are some celebs out there with some sense of discretion.

    I love the cover pic-how nice to actually see a magazine photo of a female celeb where they don’t photoshop her smile lines away! I love how genuine and expressive she looks.

  34. jemshoes says:

    Refreshing, sparkling Cate. She’s radiant inside and out. 🙂

  35. mln76 says:

    I disagree on the not talking about the death of your parent. When my dad died I would seriously talk to the mailman about it (joking but not really….) But that said I luver her.

  36. Newbie says:

    I love those photos. Well, except the one in the red chair. She got engaged to her husband 3 WEEKS AFTER THEY STARTED DATING? If she were anyone else, I’d be criticizing her like crazy. But because it’s her, and she’s do damned wonderful and tries very hard to keep out of the limelight, I’m gonna call it romantic and wonderful. As for the answer she gave about her father, bravo. Thank you for not using it as a continual reason for why you look bitchy, or are losing weight, or are underperforming at the box office (not that any of those apply to her, really). As for talking about it by saying she won’t talk about it, I get the feeling that the interviewer asked about it. Thus, the slight tone of annoyance.

  37. jill says:

    a real movie star. *sigh*

  38. ToastedSkin says:

    omg she’s so beautiful