Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (/ˈblɑːn.tʃət/; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actress of screen and stage. She is widely considered one of the best actors of her generation, and has received critical acclaim and many accolades throughout her career, including two Academy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and three BAFTA Awards.
She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 film Elizabeth, for which she won the British Academy Award for Best Actress (BAFTA) and a Golden Globe award, and earned her first Academy Award nomination. Her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's 2004 film, The Aviator, brought her critical acclaim and various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2013, she starred in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She is one of only six actresses to win Oscars for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress and the only Australian actor to win two Academy Awards.
Blanchett's other notable films include Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), Elizabeth: The Golden Age,Veronica Guerin (2003), Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
Blanchett has also had an extensive career on stage, including starring as Susan in Plenty in the West End in 1999 and the title role in Hedda Gabler with the Sydney Theatre Company in 2004. From 2007-2012, she and her husband Andrew Upton were artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, with her roles including Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire in Sydney, Brooklyn Academy of Music in NY, and Washington D.C, at the Kennedy Center (2006), Yelena in Uncle Vanya in Sydney,Washington D.C, at the Kennedy Center, and New York, at the Lincoln Center (2010) and The Maids in Sydney (2013) and New York, at the Lincoln Center (scheduled for August 2014), alongside French actress Isabelle Huppert.
Blanchett was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government on 30 March 2012.[1]
Contents[]
[hide]
- 1 Early life
- 2 Career
- 2.1 1992–2000
- 2.2 2000–2011
- 2.3 2012–present
- 3 Personal life
- 4 Filmography
- 5 Awards and nominations
- 6 Theatre credits
- 7 See also
- 8 References
- 9 External links
Early life[edit][]
Cate Blanchett was born on 14 May 1969 in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe.[2] Her mother, June (née Gamble), was an Australian property developer and teacher, and her father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., was aTexas native who was a United States Navy petty officer and later worked as an advertising executive.[3][4][5] The two met while Blanchett's father's ship, USS Arneb, was in Melbourne. When Blanchett was ten, her father died of a heart attack.[6] She is the middle of three children with an older brother, Bob, who is a computer systems engineer, and a younger sister, Genevieve, who worked as a theatrical designer.[7] Her ancestry includes English, and more distant French and Scottish forebears.[8]
Blanchett has described herself as being "part extrovert, part wallflower" during childhood.[7] She attended a primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School. For her secondary education, she attendedIvanhoe Girls' Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for acting.[9] She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas.
Career[edit][]
1992–2000[edit][]
Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1992 David Mamet play Oleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award.[10] She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh. Blanchett appeared in the TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries Bordertown withHugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie Police Rescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits, and in the 50-minute dramaParklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas. Also in 1994, she played a role in an episode of the long-running Australian TV series GP, as Janie Morris, a woman living with her brother (Daniel Lapaine as Sean Morris) in a consensual incestuous relationship. Their relationship is torn apart when their mother comes to visit, and notices that only one bed appears to be slept in regularly.[11]
She made her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during World War II, in Bruce Beresford's 1997 film Paradise Road, which co-starred Glenn Closeand Frances McDormand.[6] Her first leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrong's production of Oscar and Lucinda, opposite Ralph Fiennes.[6] Blanchett was nominated for her firstAustralian Film Institute Award as Best Leading Actress for this role, but lost out to Pamela Rabe in The Well. She did, however, win an AFI Award as Supporting Actress in the same year for her role as Lizzie in the romantic comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor. Her first high-profile international role was as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She became the first and only actress in the history of The Academy Awards, to be nominated in this category for the part.[6] Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role in Shakespeare in Love, but won a British Academy Award (BAFTA) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. The following year, Blanchett appeared in the Anthony Minghellafilm The Talented Mr. Ripley alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. Blanchett received her second BAFTA nomination.[6]
2000–2011[edit][]
Already an acclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. She played the role of Galadriel in all three films.[6] The trilogy holds the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time.[12] In addition to The Lord of the Rings, 2001 also saw Blanchett diversify her portfolio with dramas Charlotte Gray and The Shipping News alongside the American comedyBandits, for which she earned a second Golden Globe nomination.[13] In 2005, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. This made Blanchett the first person to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress.[14] That same year, Blanchett won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her role as Tracy Heart, a recovering heroin addict in the Australian film Little Fish. Though lesser known globally than some of her other films, Little Fish received tremendous critical acclaim in Blanchett's native Australia.
Blanchett at theBerlin International Film Festival, 2007.
In 2006, she starred in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, The Good German with George Clooney and Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the latter film.[15]
In 2007, Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.[16] In 2007, she won the Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival (accepted by fellow Australian actor and I'm Not There co-star Heath Ledger) and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm Not There and reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age.[17] At the80th Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations—Best Actress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There--becoming the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year, and the first female actor to receive another nomination for the reprisal of a role.[18]
She next starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as the villainous KGB agent Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, appearing on screen with Brad Pitt for a second time. On 5 December 2008, Blanchett was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre.[19]
As of 2011, Blanchett has been featured in seven films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002 and 2003),The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Blanchett provided a voice for the film Ponyo,[20] and appeared opposite Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, released on 14 May 2010. She attended the premiere of her film Hanna directed by Joe Wright at the Sydney Film Festival.[21]
2012–present[edit][]
Blanchett in 2013 at theDeauville American Film Festival.
Blanchett reprised her role as Galadriel in Jackson's adaptations of The Hobbit, filmed in New Zealand.[22] Also in 2012, Blanchett voiced the role of "Penelope" in the Family Guy episode "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie". Blanchett is set to appear in a film directed by Terrence Malick, Knight of Cups. Both are scheduled to be filmed in 2012.[23]
Blanchett played the lead role in Blue Jasmine (2013), written and directed by Woody Allen, and costarring Alec Baldwin and Sally Hawkins. Blanchett received rave reviews for her performance, with some saying it was the best role of her career (surpassing her acclaimed starring role in Elizabeth).[24] The performance earned her more than 30 critics awards (including LAFC (tied), NYFCC, NSFC, Golden Globe and Critic's Choice Awards), the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Outstanding Performance of the Year award, an Australian Academy Award (AACTA), a BAFTA award, a SAG award, an Independent Film Spirit Award and an Academy Award for Best Actress. Blanchett's win makes her just the sixth actress to win an Oscar in both of the acting categories. She is the first Australian actor to win more than one acting Oscar.[25]
Blanchett co-starred in George Clooney's film, The Monuments Men. The film featured an ensemble cast, including Clooney, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville, and Jean Dujardin, and was about a crew of art historians and museum curators who recover renowned works of art stolen by Nazis. She voiced the part of Valka in How to Train Your Dragon 2. She will play Lady Tremaine, the Wicked Stepmother, in a live-action re-imagining of Cinderella.[26][27][28]
She is also confirmed to star opposite Rooney Mara in Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, directed by Todd Haynes.[29] She will also star as Marisa Acocella Marchetto, a cartoonist for the New Yorker who is diagnosed with cancer, in the HBO movie Cancer Vixen, written and directed by Julie Delpy.[30]
Personal life[edit][]
Blanchett's husband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 on the set of a TV show.[31] They were married on 29 December 1997[32] and have three sons: Dashiell John (born 3 December 2001),[33] Roman Robert (born 23 April 2004),[34] and Ignatius Martin (born 13 April 2008).[35]
After making Brighton, England, their main family home for much of the early 2000s, she and her husband returned to their native Australia.[36] In November 2006, Blanchett stated that this was due to a desire to decide on a permanent home for her children, and to be closer to her family as well as a sense of belonging to the Australian (theatrical) community.[37] She and her family live in Bulwarra, an 1877 sandstone mansion once owned by Halse Rogers Arnott, in the harbourside Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill.[38] It was purchased for A$10.2 million in 2004 and underwent extensive renovations in 2007 to be made more "eco-friendly".[39][40]
Blanchett at the Tropfest Opens 2012 in Sydney, Australia
In 2006, a portrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist for the Archibald Prize.[41] Blanchett is a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival.[42] She works as the face of SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble.[43] In 2007, Blanchett became the ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation's online campaign – trying to persuade Australians to express their concerns about climate change.[44] She is also the Patron of the development charity SolarAid.[45] Opening the 2008 9th World Congress of Metropolis in Sydney, Blanchett said: "The one thing that all great cities have in common is that they are all different."[46]
In early 2009, Blanchett appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Australian Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors acknowledged for the "outstanding contribution they have made to Australian entertainment and culture".[47] She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once in character; Blanchett is depicted in character from Elizabeth: The Golden Age.[47] At the beginning of 2011, Blanchett lent her support for a carbon tax.[48] She received some criticism for this, especially from conservatives.[49] Blanchett and her husband are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.[50][51]She has announced that the 2013 season at the Sydney Theatre Company will be her final one as artistic director.[52] Blanchett has said: "Theatre: the making of it, the consumption of it, at its best has an aspect of the ambulance chase. It's walking the precipice of an imminent disaster, the crash, the missteps, the cock-up, the collapse. That energy and secret hope in the audience has to be harnessed ... Anything live, and truly 'alive' will contain seeds of danger." [53]
Blanchett has spoken passionately about feminism and politics, telling Sky News in 2013 that she was concerned that "a wave of conservatism sweeping the globe" was threatening women's rights.[54] She has also commented on the pressures women in Hollywood face now: "Honestly, I think about my appearance less than I did ten years ago. People talk about the golden age of Hollywood because of how women were lit then. You could be Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and work well into your 50s, because you were lit and made into a goddess. Now, with everything being sort of gritty, women have this sense of their use-by date." [55]
In January 2014, Blanchett took part in the Green Carpet Challenge,[56] an initiative to raise the public profile of sustainable fashion, founded by Livia Firth[57] of Eco-Age. Blanchett wore a pair of Fairmined earrings set with responsibly-sourced diamonds by the luxury Jeweller Chopard.[58]
Filmography[edit][]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes</thead> | 1990 | Crabs | Extra as one of the dancers[59] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Police Rescue: The Movie | Vivian | |||||
| 1996 | Parklands | Rosie | |||||
| 1997 | Oscar and Lucinda | Lucinda Leplastrier | |||||
| 1997 | Thank God He Met Lizzie | Lizzie | |||||
| 1997 | Paradise Road | Susan Macarthy | |||||
| 1998 | Elizabeth | Queen Elizabeth I | |||||
| 1999 | Bangers | Julie-Anne | |||||
| 1999 | Pushing Tin | Connie Falzone | |||||
| 1999 | An Ideal Husband | Lady Gertrude Chiltern | |||||
| 1999 | The Talented Mr. Ripley | Meredith Logue | |||||
| 2000 | The Gift | Annabelle "Annie" Wilson | |||||
| 2000 | The Man Who Cried | Lola | |||||
| 2001 | The Shipping News | Petal Quoyle | |||||
| 2001 | Charlotte Gray | Charlotte Gray | |||||
| 2001 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Galadriel | |||||
| 2001 | Bandits | Kate Wheeler | |||||
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Galadriel | |||||
| 2002 | Heaven | Philippa | |||||
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Galadriel | |||||
| 2003 | The Missing | Magdalena 'Maggie' Gilkeson | |||||
| 2003 | Coffee and Cigarettes | Herself & Shelly | |||||
| 2003 | Veronica Guerin | Veronica Guerin | |||||
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Jane Winslett-Richardson | |||||
| 2004 | The Aviator | Katharine Hepburn | |||||
| 2005 | Little Fish | Tracy Heart | |||||
| 2006 | Babel | Susan Jones | |||||
| 2006 | The Good German | Lena Brandt | |||||
| 2006 | Notes on a Scandal | Sheba Hart | |||||
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Janine | Uncredited cameo | ||||
| 2007 | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Queen Elizabeth I | |||||
| 2007 | I'm Not There | Jude Quinn (Bob Dylan) | |||||
| 2008 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko | |||||
| 2008 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Daisy Fuller | |||||
| 2009 | Ponyo | Granmamare | voice in English language version | ||||
| 2010 | Robin Hood | Lady Marian | |||||
| 2011 | Hanna | Marissa Wiegler | |||||
| 2012 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | Galadriel | |||||
| 2013 | Blue Jasmine | Jeanette 'Jasmine' Francis | |||||
| 2013 | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | Galadriel | Cameo appearance | ||||
| 2014 | The Monuments Men | Claire Simone | |||||
| 2014 | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | Valka | Voice | ||||
| 2014 | The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | Galadriel | Post-production | ||||
| 2015 | Cinderella | Lady Tremaine | Post-production | ||||
| 2015 | Carol | Carol Aird | Post-production | ||||
| TBA | Untitled Terrence Malick project | Post-production | |||||
| TBA | Knight of Cups | Post-production<tfoot></tfoot> |
Awards and nominations[edit][]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Cate Blanchett
Theatre credits[edit][]
<thead>| Year | Production | Location | Role | Notes</thead> | pre-1992 | The Odyssey of Runyon Jones | Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne | Unknown | Adaptation of play by Norman Corwin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1992 | They Shoot Horses, Don't They? | Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne | Director | Directed fellow students in a production of an adaptation of the novel by Horace McCoy | |||||
| 1992 | Electra | National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney | Electra | ||||||
| 1992/1993 | Top Girls | Sydney Theatre Company | Patient Griselda/Nell/Jeanine | Her first role there | |||||
| 1993 | Kafka Dances | Griffin Theatre Company | Bride/Felice | This production was remounted at the Sydney Theatre Company the following year; won Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Newcomer Award | |||||
| 1993 | Oleanna | Sydney Theatre Company | Carol | Opposite Geoffrey Rush; won Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Rosemont Best Lead Actress Award | |||||
| 1994 | Hamlet | Belvoir Street Theatre Company | Ophelia | Opposite Geoffrey Rush; Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield; nominated for Melbourne Green Room Best Lead Actress Award | |||||
| 1995 | Sweet Phoebe | Sydney Theatre Company andWarehouse Theatre, Croydon | Helen | World premier of a play written and directed by Michael Gow; transferred to the West End | |||||
| 1995 | The Tempest | Belvoir Street Theatre Company | Miranda | A Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield | |||||
| 1995 | The Blind Giant is Dancing | Belvoir Street Theatre Company | Rose Draper | With Hugo Weaving; Company B production, directed by Neil Armfield, with music composed by Paul Charlier; play by Stephen Sewell | |||||
| 1997 | The Seagulla.k.a. The Seagull in Harry Hills | Belvoir Street Theatre Company | Nina | Directed by Neil Armfield, music composed by Paul Charlier | |||||
| 1999 | Plenty | The Alemida Season at theAlbery Theatre, London | Susan Traherne | Directed by Jonathan Kent | |||||
| 1999 | The Vagina Monologues | The Old Vic, London | – | Ensemble including Melanie Griffith | |||||
| 2004 | Hedda Gabler | Sydney Theatre Company | Hedda Gabler | Travelled to Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre for a 4 week run March 2006; there, she was awarded the Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award. 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play. | |||||
| 2009 | The War of the Roses Cycle | Sydney Theatre Company | Richard II, Lady Anne | part of the Sydney Festival 2009 ; 2009 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Leading Actress in a Mainstage Production [NOMINATION – lost to herself for Streetcar Named Desire]; 2009 Helpmann Awards Best Female Actor in a Play [NOMINATION] | |||||
| 2009 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Sydney Theatre Company | Blanche DuBois | With Joel Edgerton; directed by Liv Ullmann; Travelled to John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, USA, 29 October – 21 November 2009; then Travelled to Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn, NY, 27 November – 20 December 2009; 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production, Washington, DC; 2009 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Leading Actress in a Mainstage ProductioN | |||||
| 2010 | Uncle Vanya | Sydney Theatre Company | Yelena | Adaptation by A. Upton; with Richard Roxburgh (Vanya), John Bell (Professor Serebryakov), Hugo Weaving (Astrov); Travelled to John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, USA, 4–27 August 2011; Travelled to Lincoln Center Festival in NY, USA, 19–28 July 2012; 2011 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production, Washington, DC; 2010 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Mainstage Production [NOMINATION]; 2011 Helpmann Awards Best Female Actor in a Play. | |||||
| 2011 | Big and Small | Sydney Theatre Company | Lotte | Directed by Benedict Andrews; new translation by Martin Crimp of Botho Strauß's 1978 play Groß und klein; co-commissioned by the Barbican Centre, London 2012 Festival, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Vienna Festival and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen ; 2011 London Evening Standard Theatre Award Best Actress [NOMINATION]; 2011 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Leading Actress in a Mainstage Production. 2012 Helpmann Awards Best Female Actor in a Play. | |||||
| 2013 | The Maids | Sydney Theatre Company | Claire | With Isabelle Huppert as Solange, Elizabeth Debicki as Madame; directed by Benedict Andrews; 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Leading Actress in a Mainstage Production [NOMINATION]. | |||||
| 2014 | Sydney Theatre Company at Lincoln Center Festival | Claire | With Isabelle Huppert as Solange, Elizabeth Debicki as Madame; directed |