UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett appeals to everyone who can to make a donation to UNHCR, as the war and violence in Sudan continue to escalate.

She also spoke with El Mundo during her visit where she was presented with Champion of Humanity Award at El Gouna Film Festival. On her speech she honored the displaced people around the world and of refugees.

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Google translated from Spanish to English.

Cate Blanchett laughs when I remind her that it was precisely in Egypt where she first stood in front of a camera. She was 19 years old—she’s 56 now—studying Economics and Fine Arts, and traveling around the country. “I had very little money and ended up staying in a seedy hotel in Cairo. They were printing passports there; the whole thing seemed quite suspicious. There was a guy recruiting people to be in a boxing film; they paid five Egyptian pounds and gave you falafel. And I was hungry and had no desire to be an actress. In the end, I ended up in a music video. It was a surreal experience, and they didn’t even give us the falafel, so I quit,” she recalls, laughing.

So yes, Cate Blanchett is laughing freely; she no longer seems so restrained in her gestures. And it’s clear she loves talking about her work, which we’ll soon see on screens. First, there’s her role in the film Alpha Gang, a science fiction comedy directed by the Zellner brothers, in which she plays the leader of an alien gang.

Secondly, there’s the one she’s currently filming, written by Alice Birch, “an incredible playwright who worked on the script for the series Succession,” the actress points out, titled Sweetsick, in which she plays a woman who is able to see what other people need.

But it’s when she talks about her work with refugees that you see the extent of her involvement, when she gestures and strives to make others understand everything that’s at stake. She begins by praising the host country, Egypt, which is home to “10 million refugees of 60 different nationalities, including 1.5 million Syrians.”

“It is very important,” she emphasizes, “to tell the story of countries like this one, which are caught in the middle between, on the one hand, major displacement crises and, on the other, the most politicised and violent genocide, and yet still manage to keep their borders and their hearts open.”

Q: What human story can you never forget?
A: “I have four children, so what affects me most is seeing children in danger. I remember a young Sudanese man, Ibrahim, who was arrested by the police while trying to cross the border into Libya. I was with him, and he told me he had tried to cross six times. I asked him why so many times, and he began to tell me everything that had happened to him, including when they put him in a cage. They were unspeakable situations, brutalities that I can’t even imagine how anyone survives, both physically and mentally. And you realize that these people have no choice. He told me, “I died in that cage.” Things only got worse until he managed to escape and reach Niger.”

Ibrahim is Sudanese, the country Cate Blanchett most often mentions when discussing refugees. As of this writing, UNHCR reports warn of escalating violence that is once again forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. An estimated 26,000 have fled El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, in recent days, and more are expected to follow. In addition to fighting, extortion, arbitrary arrests, detentions, and looting, widespread sexual violence against women and girls by armed groups has been reported.

Q: Do you think the emergency in Sudan is a forgotten crisis?
A: “Absolutely. I regret that the media only focuses on one particular crisis. It’s important, but we need to consider all of them, because they are interconnected and share common origins. Part of my responsibility as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador is to keep all crises in mind and to show that refugees are children, mothers, fathers, siblings, and skilled professionals who are forced to flee. History also connects these conflicts; we have always migrated, and that’s how cultures evolve. When a country welcomes vulnerable people with much to offer, its culture evolves in sophisticated ways.”

Q: How can our readers help?
A: “You wake up one morning and feel powerless. It happens to me too. But when you encounter xenophobic rhetoric, when you hear falsehoods about refugees and asylum seekers, it’s important to investigate what’s behind the person saying it, what they’re afraid of. Because all that rhetoric is motivated by fear. So if you try to change their mind, you’re not addressing the root of the problem. You have to change people’s mindsets, talk to the person you meet at the store, or your child’s teacher. It can be done like it was done in Australia with tobacco: in primary schools, children were taught how terrible smoking is, and they convinced their parents to quit.”

Q: Do artists and film festivals have the power and responsibility to generate changes in society?
A: “I don’t know if they have the power, but they’re certainly a platform. And I suppose you can use it to sell shapewear as well as to talk about other things. I’m not on social media, but I do know they have the potential to connect with people. But they can also be a very passive platform; you like something and forget about it, like you’re on a hamster wheel. The hard part is getting people together in places, getting them to make the effort to go, to be prepared for something, to talk, to actively connect with others.”

She gestures, asks if I agree with what she’s saying; it’s clear her arguments come from the heart. Especially when I ask if we’re going to leave our children a world worse than the one we inherited. “That’s what keeps me up at night. Because we’re facing the perfect storm, aren’t we?” she replies, adding: “We’re becoming increasingly passive because of the way we consume, the way we obtain information, and even more so with the rise of artificial intelligence, which increases that passivity and erodes our sense of reality. If we add to that the geopolitical situation and climate change, we’re in serious trouble. Humans have hit rock bottom as a species.”

Q: Do you really believe that?
A: “Yes, I do. If you look at the people who run the world now, you see they have zero imagination. And that’s why I think it falls on artists, thinkers, and writers to help people imagine a way out. Part of that starts with realizing we’re not the only ones who think this way. No, there are thousands of people gathered here who also have that positive energy, but those far-right bastards can’t stand to see us having fun. When they have all the toys, they don’t know what to do with them except pick up a hammer and smash them. They can’t create anything. It’s very worrying.”