So they split-screened him? Or was it one of those directors commentary things? Cate Blanchett is having some trouble wrapping her head around Shia LaBeoufs latest stunt. The actress hasnt heard about the #ALLMYMOVIES project, in which her Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull co-star spent 58 hours screening all of his films, as the world watched a close-up of his face via live-stream. God, she exhales, placing her fork on the breakfast plate in front of her as her eyes widen. The idea of sitting and watching all the movies Ive done over again sounds like a nightmare!
A marathon viewing of her film career would double as a crash course in the most indelible and transporting performances of the last 20 years. Her range is astonishing: Shes an actress capable of portraying both English and Elvish royalty, as comfortable inhabiting Katharine Hepburn (The Aviator) as she is Bob Dylan (Im Not There). And as the titular character in Todd Haynes new film, Carol, Blanchett takes on yet another layered, complex role the Platonic Ideal of a posh New Jersey housewife circa 1950 whos thunderstruck by a young Manhattan shopgirl named Therese (Rooney Mara). The heart-stopping romance born from their chance encounter is as touching and real as any the movies have ever seen.
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A long-in-the-making labor of love for the actress, Carol has been a part of Blanchetts life for so long that she naturally slips into the socialites cadence when reflecting on its journey to the screen: Its been on and off and up and down, she says, waving a limp hand through the air. Normally, when things take such a long time to happen, everyones so desperate to get it made that theyll just do it in whatever way they can. [But] there hasnt been any creative compromise here, and thats pretty rare. Rolling Stone met with Blanchett in a hotel suite overlooking Central Park, where we spoke to the actress about her new film, forbidden love, and the power of her celebrity.
Your character almost seems like a synthesis of several of your previous parts, from Galadriels impenetrable aura to Katharine Hepburns pluck. Did the role feel like something youd been working towards?
Every actor has a bag of tricks, but I think you really have to leave that in the trailer as much as you can. Id been sitting with the idea of playing Carol for a long time; there were [enough] layers of sediment collected about the character that by the time we shot I didnt have to think about it. What Rooney and I both loved and it was in-built into the script is that there are all these pregnant silences between Therese and Carol. Every word, every situation is incredibly loaded.
There were so few words available to these women to describe their feelings for one another.
I guess it was perversion. Homosexual love was illegal, but love between two women was considered a byproduct of hysteria. It wasnt even accorded the place of being a criminal act, in a way. Because the love story here is between two women, I think the audience feels like theyre seeing something dangerous and uncharted, in the same way that anyone whether theyre transgendered, bi, straight, lesbian, gay does when they fall head over heels for someone for the very first time. But I think what Todd was interested in bringing out was the sensation of being in love profoundly for the first time. It feels as if youre inventing the wheel.
The way Carol and Therese look at each other is in complete defiance of how theyre seen by the men in their lives.
I think what Todd is really harnessing, through so many of his references to female photographers in the Fifties its a female gaze, as opposed to the traditional male one. But I suppose a point of connection for me with Carol is that someones gender is never my first connection to them. I have a much more energetic connection to people. Unlike Therese, whos sort of thinking: Im feeling this, but I dont know what it is, because shes a woman, Carols sense of sexuality is very integrated. Her issue is how to maintain her dignity and her privacy and her connection with her child in that environment. Its not a perversion.
When Carol finally peels off Thereses shirt, she whispers: I never looked like that. Its a line thats not in the book whats she is thinking in that moment?
I think it just draws back to that youre reminded that gender is not an impediment between these two women. The age gap, the gap in experience, their difference in class thats huge. So she is looking at this young girl at the beginning of her life and thinking: Im in an entirely different psychological space, with a whole sway of heartbreak that Im carrying with me in my little satchel and youre so young. Carol has always been very secretive, and shes a quintessential Highsmith creation: Someone who has thoughts and feelings that are considered perverted by the people around her, feelings that shes had to keep very close to herself.
The first day on set is always like the first day of school. And then the last day of shooting is always, What the fuck did I do?'
Theres a musical quality to how Carol speaks; did finding her voice require a lot of
Smoking? There was a lot of smoking. I mean, obviously its the time, but its a very erogenous zone, the mouth.
Are you ever conscious of the effect that your celebrity might have on a performance?
Im more conscious of that onstage, actually. I was just in a play in Sydney, a reinvention of Platonov called The Present. You might drive an audience to come see the play through ones so-called celebrity, but hopefully you can then say: The play is not actually about me. But I dont think that I have the kind of celebrity that youre referring to. I certainly dont have it in my house.
You were in A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM a few years ago as well.
Oh my goodness! That was a long time ago. There were offers to take that to Broadway, and we really wanted to go, but you know kids.People are often put off from theatre because if you have a bad experience youre so much more implicated as an audience member; you feel kind of pissed off at yourself and pissed off at the form,. It can drive people away, so you have a huge responsibility to the art form to bring out the veracity of it. The theatre can be a really impolite and dangerous place.
Do you feel like your craft has improved since your tenure at the Sydney Theatre Company?
Well, I went to a theatre school, so its always been my first port of call. Not that I think its more important than film fortunately, Ive not been placed in a position or forged a career where its an either/or situation. But definitely producing the work of other people, running the company and being so continuously on stage for the last eight years, I hope I got better! You know, we were very accountable, because my husband and I were co-CEOs of the company, artistic directors, and I was there as an actress. So I had to develop a very, very well-honed accountability to an audience.
You recently said that your Oscar-winning performance in The Aviator left you filled with disappointment and regret. It really hasnt gotten easier for you to live with your work?
The first day on set is always like the first day of school. The feelings of anxiety and wanting to do the best thing that you can but not knowing the best way to do it. But thats why you do it; the process is to find out. And then the last day of shooting is always, What the fuck did I do? Ive learned to let that go. Its good to see the finished product once, because then you think that workedand that didnt work. You do get more used to seeing yourself over time. But the only use of watching your work is to take the good and do something about the bad.
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