02.28.05
Yay for Cate!
I’m so pleased that Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress in the Oscars last night. Not just because she’s Australian but because she’s such a superb actor and also seems like a genuinely lovely person. I saw The Aviator last week and was blown away by her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn. The woman is a chameleon!
I’ve been a big admirer of Blanchett’s work for many years. I’ve watched her in Oscar and Lucinda, Elizabeth, Pushing Tin, Charlotte Gray, Veronica Guerin, The Lord of the Rings and, I’m sure, many others that I’ve forgotten! She changes in every movie and often her disguise is so complete that at first it often doesn’t dawn on you that it’s Cate. (Except in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, where she plays herself and her Ocker cousin at the same time to hilarious effect).
This is very rare in Hollywood. Her co-star Leo di Caprio, for example, turns in a very solid and praiseworthy performance but you never once forget that it’s Leo. Similarly, Tom Cruise always looks like Tom Cruise; Julia Roberts always looks like Julia Roberts, even when she’s playing a single mum from the wrong side of the tracks. It’s particularly amazing that Blanchett is so very, very beautiful but she is able to completely transcend her beauty for a role. Plus her transformations are built on acting skill – the way she walks, talks and dresses – rather than more obvious devices such as prosthetics, greasy hair or weight gain.
She won’t remember me but I have actually met Cate – she taught drama at Australian Theatre 4 Young People when she was a NIDA student. I can’t remember if I was in her class or if she taught the class in the room next door but I definitely remember the name and I’m pretty sure we had some contact.
(This claim to fame is not as good as my Nicole Kidman story but that’s one for another time).
Cate in the SMH
Cate in The Australian
Check out pictures of the lovely frocks here
Mnementh said,
March 8, 2005 at 12.41 am
CB epitomises style and grace imo. And I agree with you about her ability to transcend her own persona for a role…there’s a great movie with her and Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton called Bandits – I was almost 1/2 hr into the movie before I realised it was her!