Everything about Cate Blanchett totally explained
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (born
May 14,
1969) is an
Academy Award- and
Golden Globe Award-winning
Australian actress and
stage director. She has won various other acting awards, most notably two
SAGs and two
BAFTAs, as well as the Volpi Cup at
64th Venice International Film Festival.
Blanchett came to international attention in the
1998 film Elizabeth, directed by
Shekhar Kapur, in which she played
Elizabeth I of England. She is also well known for her portrayals of the
elf queen
Galadriel in
Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings trilogy and
Katharine Hepburn in
Martin Scorsese's
The Aviator, a role which brought her the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She and her husband Andrew Upton are currently artistic directors of the
Sydney Theatre Company.
Biography
Early life and education
Blanchett was born in
Ivanhoe, a suburb of
Melbourne,
Australia, the daughter of June, an Australian property developer and teacher, and Robert "Bob" Blanchett, a
Texas-born
United States Navy Petty Officer who met Blanchett's mother while stationed in Melbourne and who later worked as an advertising executive. When Blanchett was 10, she lost her father to a
heart attack. She has described herself during childhood as "part extrovert, part wallflower".
Blanchett attended primary school in Melbourne at
Ivanhoe East Primary School before completing secondary education at
Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for acting. She studied Economics and Fine Arts at the
University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas. When she was 18, Blanchett went on a vacation to
Egypt. A fellow guest at a cheap hotel in Cairo asked if she wanted to be an extra in a movie, and the next day she found herself in a crowd scene cheering for an American boxer losing to an Egyptian in the film
Kaboria, starring the late Egyptian actor
Ahmed Zaki. Blanchett returned to Australia and later moved to
Sydney to study at the
National Institute of Dramatic Art; graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the
theatre.
Career
Her first major stage role was opposite
Geoffrey Rush in the 1993
David Mamet play
Oleanna, for which she won the
Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award. 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 mini-series
Heartland opposite
Ernie Dingo, the mini-series
Bordertown, with
Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of
Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie of
Police Rescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits and in the 50 minute drama Parklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas.
Blanchett made her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the
Japanese Army during WW2 in
Bruce Beresford's 1997 film
Paradise Road, which co-starred
Glenn Close and
Frances McDormand. Her first leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier in
Gillian Armstrong's production of
Oscar and Lucinda opposite
Ralph Fiennes. Coincidentally,
Peter Carey, the Booker Prize-winning Australian author of
Oscar and Lucinda, had known Blanchett's father, Bob, when both worked in the advertising industry in Melbourne. Blanchett was nominated for her first
Australian 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. Blanchett lost out to
Gwyneth Paltrow for her role in
Shakespeare in Love but won a
British Academy (BAFTA) Award and a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. The following year, Blanchett was nominated for another BAFTA Award for her supporting role in
The Talented Mr. Ripley.
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 the High Elf Queen
Galadriel in all three films, which hold the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time.
In 2004, she played a pregnant journalist in the
Wes Anderson film
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, yet again earning a nomination for BFCA award for Best Acting Ensemble.
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 ever to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress.
In 2006, she starred in both
Babel opposite
Brad Pitt, and
Notes on a Scandal playing Sheba Hart opposite
Dame Judi Dench. Coincidentally, Dench won the
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for playing Elizabeth I, the same year Blanchett lost for playing the same historical figure, albeit in a different category. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film (Dench was also
Oscar nominated).
]]
In 2007, she won the
Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival 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 also reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel to
Elizabeth entitled
Elizabeth: the Golden Age.
At the
80th Annual Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations including Best Actress for
Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for
I'm Not There, making Academy Awards history, as she became the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another Oscar nomination for the reprisal of a role.
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. She was next seen in
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as the villainous Russian Agent Irina Spalko, and will appear in
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both of which are 2008 films.
Blanchett and her husband commenced three-year contracts as
artistic co-directors of the
Sydney Theatre Company in January 2008. Their contracts include a clause that will allow either of them to take three months out of each year to pursue other activities. Blanchett made her stage directing debut in 2007 when she directed the play Blackbird for the Sydney Theatre Company.
On 26 February 2008, she was named as a member of the panel that will select participants for
Kevin Rudd's
2020 Summit of the best and brightest Australians. Controversially, Blanchett was the only woman on the ten-member panel.
Personal life
Blanchett's husband is playwright and screenwriter
Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 while she was performing in a production of
The Seagull. It wasn't love at first sight, however; "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant", Blanchett later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong you can be, but once he kissed me that was that." The two were married on
December 29,
1997. Their first child, Dashiell John, was born on
December 3,
2001; their second child, Roman Robert, was born on
April 23,
2004 and on
April 13 2008, they welcomed their third son, Ignatius Martin "Iggy" Upton, in
Sydney.
After making Brighton, England their main family home for much of the early 2000s, she and her husband returned to their native Australia. 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. She and her family live in "Bulwarra", an 1877 sandstone mansion in the harbourside Sydney suburb of
Hunters Hill. It was purchased for $10.2 million Australian dollars in 2004 and underwent extensive renovations in 2007 in order to be made more "eco-friendly".
In 2006, a portrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist in the
Archibald Prize, which is awarded the "best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics".
Blanchett is a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival. She works as the face of
SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by
Procter & Gamble. In 2007, Blanchett supported the web-based campaign
whoonearthcares.com
— urging people to express their concerns about climate change in Australia.
Filmography
Awards and nominations
BAFTA Awards:
- 1998: Best Actress (Elizabeth, winner)
- 1999: Best Supporting Actress (The Talented Mr. Ripley, nominee)
- 2004: Best Supporting Actress (The Aviator, winner)
- 2007: Best Actress (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, nominee)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress (I'm Not There, nominee)
Broadcast Film Critics Association:
- 1998: Best Actress (Elizabeth, winner)
- 2003: Best Cast (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, winner)
- 2004: Best Supporting Actress (The Aviator, nominee)
- 2004: Best Cast (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, nominee)
- 2006: Best Supporting Actress (Notes on a Scandal, nominee)
- 2007: Best Actress (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, nominee)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress (I'm Not There, nominee)
Chicago Film Critics Association:
- 1998: Best Actress (Elizabeth, winner)
- 2006: Best Supporting Actress (Notes on a Scandal, nominee)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress (I'm Not There, winner)
Golden Globe Awards:
- 1999: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Elizabeth, winner)
- 2001: Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Bandits, nominee)
- 2003: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Veronica Guerin, nominee)
- 2004: Best Supporting Actress (The Aviator, nominee)
- 2006: Best Supporting Actress (Notes on a Scandal, nominee)
- 2007: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, nominee)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress (I'm Not There, winner)
Satellite Awards:
- 1998: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Elizabeth, winner)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (An Ideal Husband, nominee)
- 2001: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Charlotte Gray, nominee)
- 2004: Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Drama (The Aviator, nominee)
- 2006: Best Supporting Actress (Notes on a Scandal, nominee)
- 2007: Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (I'm Not There, nominee)
Screen Actors Guild:
- 1998: Best Actress (Elizabeth, nominee)
- 2001: Best Supporting Actress (Bandits, nominee)
- 2001: Best Cast (nominee)
- 2002: Best Cast (nominee)
- 2003: Best Cast (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, winner)
- 2004: Best Supporting Actress (The Aviator, winner)
- 2004: Best Cast (The Aviator, nominee)
- 2006: Best Supporting Actress (Notes on a Scandal (film)|Notes on a Scandal]], nominee)
- 2006: Best Cast (Babel, nominee)
- 2007: Best Actress (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, nominee)
- 2007: Best Supporting Actress (I'm Not There, nominee)
Venice Film Festival:
- 2007: Volpi Cup - Best Actress (I'm Not There, winner)
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Academy Award
|-
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! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | BAFTA Award
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Golden Globe Award
|-
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Screen Actors Guild Award
|-
|-
! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Venice Film Festival
|-
Theatre Credits and Awards
| Year |
Play |
Location |
Role |
Notes and Awards |
|
The Odyssey of Runyon Jones |
Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne |
Unknown |
Adaption of the famous play by Norman Corwin. |
|
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? |
Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne |
Director |
She directed her fellow students in a production of the novel by Horace McCoy. |
|
Electra |
National Institute of Dramatic Art, Melbourne |
Electra |
She played the lead in this play by Sophocles. Her director, Lindy Davies, was sharing a house with Geoffrey Rush, and urged him to come and see this “astonishing young woman.” He did, and shared sentiments. He later recounted this to Blanchett. |
|
Top Girls |
Sydney Theatre Company |
Unknown |
After graduading from the NIDA, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company. This play by Caryl Churchill was the first one she starred in. |
|
Oleanna |
Sydney Theatre Company |
Carol |
She played the lead opposite Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet's play about a university professor who is accused of sexual harassment by a student. She initially believed it to be a "misogynist piece of crap", and her anger inspired her in the role. She picked up her second award of the year for the role: the Rosemont Best Actress Award. |
|
Hamlet |
Belvoir Street Theatre Company |
Ophelia |
Once again, she played the lead opposite Geoffrey Rush. It was a Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield. |
|
Sweet Phoebe |
Sydney Theatre Company and the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon. |
Helen |
She played the lead in the Belvoir Street Theatre/Playbox Theatre co-production, written and directed by Michael Gow. The Sydney production was the first ever, then transferred to the West End. |
|
The Tempest |
Belvoir Street Theatre Company |
Miranda |
A Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield. Cate played alongside Duxton Chevalier, who was previously in the 1994 TV Movie Police Rescue with her. |
|
The Blind Giant is Dancing |
Belvoir Street Theatre Company |
Rose Draper |
Played alongside Hugo Weaving among others in this Stephen Sewell play. It opened on August 15, 1995, and closed on September 10, 1995. It was a Company B production, directed by Neil Armfield, with music composed by Paul Charlier. |
|
The Seagull, a.k.a. The Seagull in Harry Hills |
Belvoir Street Theatre Company |
Nina |
Played a lead in the Anton Checkov play. It opened on March the 4th, 1997, and closed on April the 13th. It was a Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield, music composed by Ian McDonald. |
|
Plenty |
The Alemida Season at the Albery Theatre, London |
Susan Traherne |
She played the lead in the play by David Hare, directed by Jonathan Kent. It opened on April 27, 1999, and closed on July the 27th. The play, about twenty years of a woman's life, starting with her being in the French resistance in the 40s, was the first London production since its premiere at the National Theatre 21 years previously. |
|
The Vagina Monologues |
The Old Vic Theatre, London |
Unknown |
She took part in the show in February 1999, alongside other celebrities, including Melanie Griffith. |
|
Hedda Gabler |
Sydney Theatre Company |
Hedda Gabler |
Her performance in this Henrik Ibsen play is her last to date. It opened on July 22, 2004, and closed on September 26, 2004. She reprised her performance as Hedda in New York in March 2006, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. |
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