Cate Blanchett covers the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK. What do you think of the cover? I love Cate, and my default setting is “whatever Cate is doing, I will love it.” So… I think the cover is very striking and, as always, Cate looks so effortlessly chic. That being said, the cover sort of looks like Cate is standing in front of Georgina Chapman’s RUFFLEBOARD at the Marchesa studio. I’m sure Cate is wearing, like, Chanel or something, but the background just looks so budget and Marchesa. Which brings me to an interesting question: is Cate Blanchett’s inherent style and chicness so all-encompassing that she would be the one woman in the world who could pull off a Marchesa gown? It’s not that we really need to contemplate this because of course she would never. RIGHT?!

As for this Bazaar UK interview, the UK site already published a lengthy excerpt – you can read it here. It’s actually a conversation between Cate, the Bazaar interviewer and Woody Allen. I’m reminded once again of something rather strange – Woody Allen really wants Cate to get nominated for everything for Blue Jasmine. Woody rarely does any press for his films, much less press for the actors in his films. He must really adore Cate. It’s actually a difficult piece to try to excerpt from, so it’s best to just read the whole thing – Woody plays the curmudgeon and Cate plays the enigma/diva. It’s actually kind of cool piece.

Cate on Woody’s social awkwardness: “It is funny because I often feel the only way to have something to talk about with someone is to work together. Then at least you’ve got something to discuss…. Well, when you cast me, I was lucky because I lived so far away and we could keep it brief on the phone. We didn’t even have to see one another.”

Cate on Woody’s directing style: “What I really welcomed was that if you didn’t like something, you’d say it. What happens a lot in film, though not so much in the theatre, is that you get stroked and sort of massaged, like a little guinea pig. Whereas you’re very clear. I don’t know whether it’s your history in stand-up; it works or it doesn’t work, it’s interesting or it’s boring. Is that easier when you’re acting in a film, because you can feel it from the inside?”

Woody didn’t realize how the costume designer got all of those amazing clothes: “I was shocked to learn by reading in The New York Times that the costume designer on Blue Jasmine, Suzy Benzinger, had a budget of only $35,000 for every costume in the film. I knew the budget was limited, but I had no idea.”

Cate on the wardrobe: “The Hermès bag I was carrying was worth more than her whole budget, and there I was, throwing it on the sidewalk again and again. I felt her blood pressure go up every time it hit the pavement. We borrowed it. But the waiting list for those bags is decades. You’re in wheelchairs before they arrive. I think I borrowed the PR girl’s bag, but I didn’t find that out until I’d thrown it on the sidewalk for the seventh time.”

Cate on the hardest part of filmmaking: “For me, publicity is the hardest. I was trying to explain to someone yesterday that the decisions you make as an actor have to be instinctual, it has to come alive between you and the other actors. Maybe because I am a goldfish, when a shoot ends I leave behind the reasons I’ve done what I have done. To come back six months later and dredge all that stuff up for publicity is difficult.”

Cate’s work choices: “After I had children, I think by necessity I became a lot more economical in the way that I worked. My first question when my agent calls is: ‘Who’s directing and when are they shooting?’ I always ask: ‘How long do they need me?’ Which sounds banal, but it helps keep you rational. Like you were saying, you shoot in the school holidays. Of course, my children’s summer holidays are entirely different, as we live in the hemisphere that fills Woody with horror: that hot, faraway, long-haul hemisphere. Nothing fills Woody with more terror… But children are hilarious. My children were very impressed when I became a piece of Lego [for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]. I warned them there wouldn’t be any merchandise from Blue Jasmine.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar UK]

There’s so much more at that link – Woody talking about his kids with Soon-Yi, how he keeps his life compartmentalized, how one of Soon-Yi’s stories (about one of her friends) was the inspiration for Blue Jasmine. It’s clear that Woody and Cate really do have an interesting, friendly relationship. And he wants her to win the Oscar for his film. I wonder… does Woody’s vocal support mean much to Cate’s Oscar campaign? We’ll have to see how Meryl Streep’s campaign pans out.

Also – I love Cate’s imagery. “Stroked like a little guinea pig” and “because I’m such a goldfish” etc. I LOVE HER. I would stroke her like a guinea pig.

Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar UK.