Cate Blanchett Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Characters
Borderlands (Lilith) star Cate Blanchett joins GQ as she revisits some of the most iconic characters in her career so far: from playing Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings to her role as Hela in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok.
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00:00I remember someone saying to me,
00:02there's this offer come in for you to go and play an elf in New Zealand.
00:07I went, oh, an elf in New Zealand?
00:09And I said, what's the story?
00:10And they said, oh, it's from the Lord of the Rings.
00:12I went, oh, someone's making the Lord of the Rings.
00:15And I said, who's directing it?
00:16Peter Jackson.
00:17I stopped speaking.
00:18And they said, yeah, you don't want to do that, do you?
00:21They didn't realize why I wasn't speaking.
00:23It was like the perfect job.
00:30The Aviator.
00:38I read in the magazines that you play golf.
00:42On occasion.
00:43Well, how about nine holes?
00:48Now, Mr. Hughes?
00:50If it would be convenient, Miss Hepburn.
00:53I played Catherine Hepburn in The Aviator.
00:56It was about Howard Hughes.
00:58And they obviously had a very public,
01:02although they tried to keep it clandestine, love affair.
01:04His love of cinema, her love of daring.
01:07I remember I was working on a Western with Ron Howard.
01:11I had just had a baby.
01:12And my eldest was learning to walk in the snow.
01:15And it was kind of idyllic.
01:16And I was riding out with Marlboro men every day.
01:18And it doesn't get much better than this.
01:19And then I got a call saying that Martin Scorsese
01:23was trying to get hold of me.
01:24He had a script he wanted to send me.
01:26And I nearly buckled at the knees.
01:29I think I was so nervous talking to him
01:31because I knew whatever it was he was asking me to do,
01:35I was going to say yes.
01:36And then it was to play Catherine Hepburn.
01:38I went, OK, this is the end of my career.
01:41The film will be amazing because he's the maestro.
01:45But yeah, I was terrified.
01:47I remember the first time I saw Sylvia Scarlet.
01:50And I was just blown away.
01:52And then seeing Philadelphia's story
01:54and all of those fantastic screwball comedies.
01:57How are you?
01:58Much better now that you're here.
02:00Ah, I guess this must be love.
02:02Your guess is correct, Mr. Conner.
02:03I'm just his faithful old dog, Trey.
02:05She's so extraordinary.
02:07There was no one like her.
02:08What's that on the steering wheel?
02:11Cellophane.
02:12Do you have any idea the crap that people
02:13carry around on their hands?
02:16What kind of crap?
02:18You don't want to know.
02:20Well, the first thing is you have to
02:22attack the most obvious parts of the character,
02:26like the way they move, the way they speak,
02:28which was so distinctive with Hepburn.
02:30But then the most important thing is you've
02:32got to say to the director, what's
02:34the world that I'm entering?
02:36Because this is not a film about Catherine Hepburn.
02:39I had to fit into the story that he was telling.
02:42And he was so fantastic.
02:43The way he said to me, you look great blonde.
02:46You can just be blonde.
02:47And you don't have to sound like her.
02:48I mean, gosh, your voice was so annoying.
02:51He was just trying to make me feel better.
02:53And it was so liberating that he said that to me
02:55because it just removed any residual feeling
02:59that I would have to get it right.
03:01I then just said to myself, I'm playing a character
03:04in a Martin Scorsese film.
03:06But the wonderful thing that Scorsese does,
03:08and I'm sure he does it with all of his films,
03:10is that he screened a set of films that had an energy
03:14to how he wanted me to play the character.
03:17So he screened about four or five different films
03:19that gave us a tone and a texture
03:20and a world in which to play.
03:22He wanted the first entry of Hepburn into the story
03:25to sort of knock your head back.
03:27Follow through is everything in golf, just like life.
03:30Don't you mind?
03:31In the same way that she must have done that
03:34with audiences the first time they'd seen her,
03:36the energy that she brought on to screen.
03:37I adore the theater.
03:39Only alive on stage.
03:41I'll teach you.
03:41We'll see some Ibsen if the Republicans
03:43haven't outlawed him by now.
03:45You're not a Republican, are you?
03:47Couldn't abide that.
03:47How'd you vote in 32?
03:49Well, I didn't.
03:49You must.
03:50It's your secret franchise.
03:52But what was, when I saw the film,
03:53what I love seeing was obviously
03:56when Hepburn and Howard Hughes have broken up
03:58and he's locked himself in his screening room.
04:00And obviously when I played that scene with Leo,
04:03he was on the other side of the door.
04:04So I never saw his side of it, just what I imagined.
04:09Because even his voice was so painful to listen to.
04:13I can't, sweetie.
04:18You mean you won't.
04:19And then to see the visual on the other side
04:21was really heartbreaking.
04:27Lord of the Rings.
04:29Who could have known?
04:31Except all of us fan boys and girls.
04:33I mean, I was there to work with Peter Jackson.
04:35I was such a huge fan of his work and his reverence
04:39and his love of kind of the ugly side of things.
04:45You were a fan of his horror works.
04:48I grew up on horror.
04:49And so all of that braindead stuff,
04:51I mean, I just absolutely loved it.
04:54I loved it.
04:55And it was so funny, you know,
04:58as well as being so revolting and creepy.
05:02Party's over.
05:06And so imagining his sensibility on those stories,
05:09which were sort of like a holy grail
05:14of a certain aspect of the literary canon,
05:17I thought this is going to be really...
05:20Because you have to ask yourself
05:21when you're adapting something so beloved
05:24and that has such a particular and special place for people,
05:27why, what are you going to do with it?
05:30But who could have known that it would have taken off
05:32in the way that it did?
05:33First voice, the very first thing we hear.
05:36Yes.
05:37It began with the forging of the great rings.
05:41Three were given to the elves,
05:43immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings.
05:46I think it was in the original scripts,
05:51but I don't think I fully computed
05:54that it would be the first thing.
05:56Because when you first pick up a script to read it,
05:58you're reading the story.
05:59They were all very interested in,
06:01which I found really exciting,
06:03the fact that in order to become a force for good
06:08or positive strength,
06:10you have to have confronted the darkness within.
06:13And so they were very interested,
06:14even though I don't think the book
06:15necessarily leans into that heavily,
06:18although they found their Tolkien justifications for it.
06:22They were interested in the small way,
06:24the bit that I'm in,
06:25teasing apart the idea of the darkness
06:28that could have been unleashed in her,
06:30that she too has been tempted by the ring.
06:32I remember filming that not knowing,
06:35because Pete was kind of just experimenting with it
06:37and not knowing that necessarily
06:39it was going to be in the final film.
06:40It gives so much depth to the character.
06:42Yeah, I think so, yeah.
06:43How was your experience with the Hobbit
06:45coming back to the character?
06:47Oh, well, I mean, I knew there wasn't
06:48a snowflake's chance in hell
06:50of me reprising my role in that,
06:52but I sent kind of a jokey email to Pete saying,
06:55you know, if you want to put Galadriel in,
06:57I'm free, I'll come over, you know, sail my canoe.
07:01But I loved it, I loved it.
07:03It was really special.
07:04I mean, I was there for three weeks
07:06on the Lord of the Rings,
07:07and I think I might've been, you know,
07:09on the Hobbit, might've been there three days,
07:11but it was really special nonetheless, yeah.
07:14Did you sign on when Guillermo del Toro
07:16was still attached or?
07:17Yeah, yeah, I think he was originally, yeah.
07:20Yeah, still out there in my mind,
07:22this alternate universe where he,
07:23you know, his version of it.
07:24Yeah, they're both such special directors
07:27and really particular,
07:28and you can totally see the crossover,
07:30but yet they, you know, they make things
07:32and they create worlds in their own unique ways.
07:34I mean, you know,
07:35it would have been equally as special,
07:37but just different.
07:42Thor Ragnarok.
07:45I don't play Thor.
07:46I wasn't asked to play Thor.
07:47Well, you know, Natalie Portman played Thor.
07:49Well, yes, I know they were big muscles.
07:52That's a lot of work.
07:53A lot of work.
07:54That wasn't CGI.
07:56You must be Hela.
07:59I'm Thor, son of Odin.
08:01Really?
08:02You don't look like him.
08:04Perhaps we can come to an arrangement.
08:06You sound like him.
08:10Kneel.
08:11Beg your pardon?
08:15Well, I'd seen Taika's films and loved them.
08:18I'd heard that it was happening,
08:20but I didn't think anything of it.
08:22And then I just got a call saying
08:24that Taika wanted to meet,
08:26and what I, I said, yeah, of course.
08:28And I didn't know what he,
08:29I just really wanted to say hello.
08:31And then he asked would I be in it?
08:33You know, Marvel aren't necessarily used
08:35to having a whole script.
08:36So there wasn't anything, you know,
08:38often they'll, they will board the essential battles
08:42and they'll start working backwards.
08:44Like they won't make their stories,
08:46construct their stories.
08:47You know, it's a whole big, massive jigsaw puzzle.
08:51I don't know.
08:51What I didn't realize then was the first time
08:54a female villain had been realized on screen.
08:56So that was really exciting.
08:58Who are you?
08:59What have you done with Thor?
09:04I'm Hela.
09:07But I knew Taika was going to put
09:09his own particular spin on it.
09:10And that Chris was so up for anything,
09:14incredibly generous and funny
09:16and ready to kind of move this in another direction.
09:19So it felt like there was a really playful,
09:21exciting energy.
09:22Fresh winds were moving through.
09:25It was great.
09:26It was really great.
09:27And I mean, I learned so much.
09:30I mean, literally just to,
09:32which I was still doing on Borderlands,
09:34not to go pew pew when you shoot the guns
09:36because you have to throw a lot of stuff
09:38out of your whatever bits are going to be
09:40CGI'd onto your hand.
09:41You know, hammer throwing lessons from Chris
09:44about how it could actually make it like it's a mime.
09:47You had to have energy through your arm.
09:49I mean, I did.
09:50I learned a lot of soft skills.
09:52You want Asgard?
09:54It's yours.
09:55Whatever game you're playing, it won't work.
09:59You can't defeat me.
10:01No, I know.
10:04But he can.
10:06It's a really huge action scene
10:10that was all shot outdoors.
10:12And Zoe Bell had come out of retirement
10:14to be Hela's stunt double.
10:16Oh my God, I learned so much from Zoe.
10:18She's so deeply cool.
10:19So to work with Zoe and to do my bits
10:21and to watch her do this incredible stuff
10:24was just like, oh, my jaw hit the floor.
10:27She's amazing.
10:30I'm probably the wrong person to ask
10:37since I don't read reviews.
10:40Never, really.
10:40No, but it is odd.
10:43I think that anyone ever felt compelled
10:45to substitute maestro with maestra.
10:48I mean, we don't call women astronauts, astronauts.
10:53It's definitely a tragedy.
10:56Oftentimes in tragedy, we forget,
10:59that we think about the forces that cause the downfall
11:02or the tragic unfolding of events
11:04as being external to the central characters
11:08who we're asked to invest in.
11:09But to watch something where the tragedy occurs
11:13from an implosion as much as an explosion
11:16was a really interesting thing to play,
11:19which is hard.
11:20I found it very hard film to talk about.
11:22It connected with me so deeply
11:25that I didn't want to become too conscious of it.
11:28I didn't want to tell an audience what to make of it
11:30because I felt there were so many things brought to bear
11:34that we didn't really get a space to talk about.
11:36So for me, the film existed on a metaphorical layer
11:40and as much as it existed literally,
11:42I think people got really obsessed
11:44with the literal kind of circumstances,
11:46which are quite, not quite,
11:49they are elusive and mysterious.
11:51So it became a little bit of a rush out test
11:54for how people read the film or read the situation.
11:58What they thought was said or what they just interpreted.
12:01Based on their experiences with so many other stories
12:04that are like happening.
12:04Yeah, it's interesting.
12:06If we get one or two whiffs of a certain story,
12:10we often lean into that side of the narrative
12:13rather than allowing the story to unfold.
12:15And I think that happens a lot
12:16with all of us conversationally
12:18is that we think we understand what someone's saying
12:21and we start to formulate judgments
12:23and perceptions of what is going to be said
12:26rather than allowing that person's narrative
12:28to genuinely unfold.
12:30Unfettered by our own sense of judgment.
12:43Great physical performance from you as the conductor.
12:46Yes.
12:47Yeah, it was terrifying.
12:49It was terrifying.
12:50I was actually shooting Borderlands in Hungary,
12:54like a film made from a video game,
12:56preparing for this.
12:58And obviously lockdown was still alive and kicking.
13:01And so none of the opera houses were open.
13:04I couldn't have piano lessons in person.
13:06I was able to finally,
13:07I found a great piano teacher in Budapest, Emashe Virak.
13:10And so she could finally teach me face-to-face
13:14and she took me into the concert halls.
13:16And, but all of the music had to be chosen and learnt.
13:22And so I was having Zoom,
13:23a lot of Zoom calls about that stuff,
13:25but it was so great.
13:27It was a little bit like when I was preparing
13:28to play Bob Dylan,
13:29but I was playing Elizabeth I.
13:31Lydia Tarr and Borderlands were never going to intersect.
13:35Although if you think about the last image
13:37of where she ends up at a,
13:39you know, a video game conference,
13:41there's an irony there.
13:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:43There was Monsanto's, yeah.
13:49I remember being on set with Jamie Lee
13:52Curtis and she was,
13:54Jamie Lee, like she needs a surname.
13:56You know, she was asking me what I was doing
13:57because I was sort of moving in a strange way.
14:00And I had the score for Marla's fifth out
14:04and I was trying to put my annotations in about,
14:07you know, because I was having lessons
14:09and she just laughed, you know.
14:11Just the absurdity of preparing that role
14:14while being on the set of Borderlands.
14:15Blue Jasmine.
14:22You know, I can't be alone, Ginger.
14:24I really get some bad thoughts when I'm alone.
14:27Well, you know, all I can say is you look great.
14:32Now who's lying?
14:34You know, I was up all last night.
14:36I was so anxious about moving here.
14:38Yeah.
14:39I wasn't sure how angry you still were.
14:42You know, I played Jasmine in Blue Jasmine
14:46and she is someone who has married out of her hood
14:54where her sister still lives
14:57and has kind of, well, totally reinvented herself,
15:00like streets away from where she grew up.
15:03She gets divorced and she's got no money
15:05and she has to go back to her sister.
15:07So it's a little bit like if you think about
15:10Streetcar named Desire, Tennessee Williams
15:13kind of through a sort of an Upper East Side
15:16Woody Allen lens.
15:17And that's kind of where you are.
15:19You from out here?
15:21New York. Park Avenue.
15:24You know, when my husband passed away,
15:25I mean, naturally I was very upset.
15:28So I decided to come out here
15:29and start a new life for myself.
15:34What did he do?
15:35He was a surgeon.
15:40Famously most of the film takes place in San Francisco
15:42and I think it's one of the great San Francisco movies.
15:45It is.
15:45I thought initially that we were shooting in San Francisco
15:48because of the streetcars,
15:49but there was a scene in a streetcar
15:51that then he cut out.
15:52So I don't think he wanted comparisons made to it.
15:55But certainly from my perspective,
15:57because there's no time to shoot anything,
15:59often really long takes or just one take.
16:04My husband and I ran sort of like
16:06the de facto national theater in Australia.
16:08And in our first season,
16:10I think we programmed a production of Streetcar,
16:12which Liv Ullman directed.
16:14And so I had played and we toured a lot.
16:17And so I'd lived with the circumstances of that play
16:19for a really long time.
16:21I'm very slow.
16:22And so I felt that I could bring a lot of that
16:25just subterranean understanding of the circumstances
16:28of those sets of relationships into that film,
16:31which was really helpful
16:32because we were moving so quickly.
16:33The end scene we shot,
16:36and then we had to redo it again,
16:39which I thought, oh God,
16:40it was such a kind of a state to be in.
16:42It's fraught with peril.
16:47They gossip, they talk.
16:52I saw Danny.
16:53I think he wanted to rewrite it.
16:55But then you think, oh, well,
16:56I do that every night in the theater,
16:58so I can go back and do it again.
16:59And it's actually, it's happened a few times
17:01where you've had to go back and reshoot something.
17:04And often if you felt like you as a group of people
17:06hadn't had, had got somewhere
17:09approximating something that was interesting,
17:12it can be a bit disappointing,
17:13but it's always fascinating doing it a second time.
17:16You know, having another go at it.
17:18On a weekend in Palm Beach means I can wear,
17:22I can wear, I can wear the Dior dress
17:24that I bought in Paris.
17:28Yes, my black dress.
17:31Well, how old is used to surprise me with jewelry?
17:35Extravagant pieces.
17:36If you listen to people, you know,
17:38like me being Australian, I will become,
17:40my accent will become stronger
17:42when I'm in certain environments.
17:44While I slip into where I am,
17:46much to the embarrassment of my children.
17:48You listen to other people who have
17:51trance like I've lived in England for a long time.
17:53And I've got friends who've lived in England for less time,
17:56but they sound more British than I do
17:58because this has been where they,
18:00where they've taken off or deeply connected with
18:02and something's, you know,
18:04transformative has happened in that particular place
18:07so that it really does shift them into an,
18:10and then some people never lose their accent
18:12no matter where they move.
18:13But I think Jasmine is one of those people
18:15who's a real survivor.
18:18And so it was important fitting in
18:20and eradicating her past.
18:23It was, you know, an act of survival.
18:25You say Australians are the best at doing accents.
18:27You think?
18:28Being colonized by the British,
18:29I guess, you know,
18:30and also culturally colonized by the Americans.
18:33And there's not a lot of call
18:34for Australian characters internationally,
18:37you know, unless you're working at home.
18:38I'd love to see you in the next Mad Max picture.
18:40There we go.
18:40Speak to George.
18:42And some horror films too, I think.
18:43I know.
18:44Gotta get me into a few.
18:51I'm not there.
18:53I think it's the process itself that's at fault.
18:55Who cares what I think?
18:57I'm not the president.
18:59I'm not some shepherd.
19:01I'm just a storyteller, man.
19:02That's all I am.
19:03Todd Haynes, you know,
19:04you may have seen his work, Carol,
19:06or more recently, the May-December,
19:08which is extraordinary.
19:09Made a film about Bob Dylan
19:10where he divided Dylan's persona
19:12into, I think it was seven different personas,
19:16eras, personalities, and actors.
19:18And I play one of them.
19:19Heath Ledger was playing one,
19:21and Christian and Michelle Williams
19:23was also in my particular section.
19:26We weren't all there at the same time,
19:28but I was wildly excited by,
19:32you know, Richard Gere on horseback
19:34and this whole Western take on it.
19:36I played the version of Bob Dylan
19:37when he went electric on the 68 tour.
19:44Maybe the most fun version.
19:45Oh, God, it was so much fun.
19:46I love the Highway 61.
19:48And I was preparing for it
19:50when I was playing Queen Elizabeth
19:52and I was watching all the outtakes
19:54for the Penny Baker documentary
19:56and the Penny Baker documentary
19:58but to see the, you know,
20:01all of the press conferences he did
20:03in Stockholm and in Paris
20:04and here in London
20:06and his interface with the media,
20:08it was crazy.
20:11They just did not know.
20:12You'd see these people
20:13literally not knowing what to make.
20:16Was that an answer?
20:18Is he playing with us?
20:19It was so formal,
20:21the interaction with the press
20:22and the expectations were so absolute
20:26that artists had to make sense,
20:28that they had to justify their work,
20:30that they had to tell an audience
20:31what to think.
20:32He was just not going to do that.
20:35Some have questioned,
20:36given your latest recordings,
20:37whether or not you still care about people
20:39as you once did.
20:41Yeah, but, you know,
20:44we all have our own definitions
20:46of all those words,
20:49care and people.
20:52Well, I think we all know
20:53the definition of people.
20:57Do we?
20:58Are you looking forward
20:58to the Timothee Chalamet biopic?
21:00Yeah, be curious.
21:02I mean, there's so much to say,
21:03to hang off that life.
21:06It doesn't all necessarily
21:07have to be true.
21:09Movies aren't necessarily
21:12the facts of the thing,
21:13but they're often
21:14the feeling of the thing.
21:21Carol.
21:23What was your favorite doll
21:25when you were four?
21:27Me?
21:28I never...
21:30Not many, to be honest.
21:33I'm sorry, you're not allowed
21:34to smoke on the sales floor.
21:37The ball.
21:40Forgive me.
21:40Shopping makes me nervous.
21:42Who is Carol?
21:42Well, she's a creation
21:46in the mind of Patricia Highsmith.
21:48Phyllis Nagy did the screenplay,
21:49which was just superb.
21:52And finally, Todd came on board
21:55to direct it.
21:56And I think it's hard to remember
21:58because so much has changed
22:00and still needs to change
22:01about representation on screen
22:03and the type of same-sex relationships
22:05that were being explored.
22:07They weren't being made.
22:09I mean, it was not that far apart,
22:11I think, from the lack
22:13of kind of non-suicidal,
22:15tragic endings that came
22:17from same-sex stories.
22:18It was a pretty arid landscape
22:20in the mainstream.
22:22And so I was so excited
22:24and moved that the film
22:26has resonated with
22:28and continues to resonate
22:29with people, you know,
22:30because I think that Todd's impact
22:32on the way those types of stories
22:34get told is so sensitive
22:36and powerful and timeless.
22:38A photographer?
22:41I think so,
22:42if I have any talent for it.
22:45Isn't that something other people
22:46let you know you have?
22:48And all you can do is keep working.
22:51Use what feels right.
22:53Throw away the rest.
22:55I suppose so.
23:04Will you show me your work?
23:05It was really, really important
23:07to the look of the film
23:08to shoot on 16 millimeter.
23:10It dictated how long
23:11our takes could be,
23:12but I knew it was super important
23:14to make sure that it was
23:16super important
23:17to the look of the film
23:18in order to try and make
23:19when it ultimately got
23:20transferred to digital
23:21to give it a kind of a softness
23:23and a depth and a richness of color,
23:25which Ed Larkin,
23:26who I've worked with
23:27several times now,
23:27he's such a genius cinematographer.
23:29It just meant that you had
23:32to be really all focused
23:33because you couldn't
23:34let the thing run long.
23:36The times I've worked with Todd,
23:37I've always felt that the sets
23:38are really intimate.
23:39He really creates that environment
23:41where, obviously,
23:42with an incredible eye,
23:44an immense skill set,
23:49and such a kind of a porous
23:53but sure perspective
23:54on the stories that he's telling.
23:56But yet he creates this feeling like,
23:58well, just making a student film.
24:00So there's a kind of,
24:01feels like a liberating,
24:04risk-taking quality
24:05that he creates on his sets,
24:06which is really quite remarkable.
24:09Borderlands.
24:11Tunter.
24:13You've come in search of the secret
24:14lost vault of Pandora.
24:19I play Lilith in Borderlands,
24:21which has been transposed
24:22from that amazing video game.
24:25And I get dropped back
24:26into my home planet,
24:27Kicking and Screaming,
24:28which is in Pandora,
24:29to try and find a vault,
24:31which I don't even think exists.
24:32Having gone through
24:34Kicking and Screaming,
24:35I've been able to find
24:37Having gone through
24:38kind of the Lord of the Rings,
24:39which was sort of
24:41at the beginning
24:41of all of that technology,
24:42really coming to the fore.
24:44And then to be playing Hela
24:46in the Marvel, in Thor,
24:48where there was a lot of green screen
24:51and a lot of mo-cap suits.
24:53I had sort of thought Borderlands,
24:54oh, it's from a video game.
24:55Of course, it's going to be
24:56in an ILM stage.
24:57And I'm going to have dots
24:58all over my face
24:59or a camera in front of me.
25:00It's all going to be done in post.
25:01I'm going to be scanned
25:02and I'm going to go home.
25:03When Eli came on board to direct it,
25:06which is how I heard about it,
25:07he said, no, I really,
25:09he loved Hotaroski,
25:10those Sergio Leone's,
25:12the Westerns,
25:13where you can feel the grit.
25:14You know how hot it is
25:16and people are sweating
25:17and he wanted it to be
25:19kind of a bit more sweaty.
25:21And so that stuff was,
25:22you know, that's where I got my idea
25:24of having Fingalist Club.
25:25So when I heard those references
25:29and knew it was going to be shot
25:31on the ground in Budapest
25:32and I was actually going to be on stage
25:34with real people
25:35because, of course,
25:36this was during the pandemic
25:37that we shot it.
25:38I was so excited
25:39by all of those elements.