Hi, everyone!
Here’s some scans of Cate’s magazine feature in May 2021 issue of Skon and Grazia Italia.
We’d like to send our thanks to 
and Adele for their donation to the site. We’re currently running a donation drive to keep the site running (you can scroll down to see Donate button if you are on your mobile phone or click on the right sidebar if using a desktop, or click below). Thank you!
Or using QR Code:
Skon – May 2021
Hello, Blanchetters!
The Cate Blanchett Birthday Project 2021 is here. And we got new magazine scan which is first for 2021.
The birthday project is an idea created by Eden, a fan from our community. Since 2015, she proposes a set of tasks to express our admiration and say happy birthday to Cate.
F N.2 – January 12th 2021
Welcome the 2021 (7th) Cate Blanchett Birthday Project!
Every year, for the past 7 years I’m trying to collaborate Cate Blanchett fans together in order to make something special for her birthday. And I am super excited to say that we have made 6 successful birthday projects together which has ALL arrived to Cate.
Cate Blanchett has influenced me and many more people through the years and this project is my way to say: Thank You. This year the project will surround CELEBRATING OURSELVES.
Cate is a huge inspiration for all of us. She believes in celebrating ourselves as WHO WE ARE. If it’s as a woman, as a man, as a queer, as whoever we want to be, and this project is about that. It’s about being ourselves and celebrating us as who we are, because that’s where our true power lies.
This year we will create a fan cover for the ultimate Cate song “You Don’t Own Me” This is how it will work:
- The amazing Maya has created an amazing piano cover for us. It is right here.
- I want you to listen to the cover and sing the song! If you’re not sure, you can listen to Erich’s great intro here.
- Then videotape yourself covering the song. You can create two different videos of Audio & a video OR make it in one. It doesn’t really matter
- The most important thing here is that the Audio needs to be AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE.
Meaning: I want to hear your singing voice only! The playback will be in your headphones but not for me to hear it.- If you are a dancer or a performer this section is to you: You can dance/ perform to the piano cover and I will add that to our clip.
Some things to get out of the way:
- I’m not singer and I’m not expecting you to be ones. It’s just you making something fun for Cate! 🙂
- The song is not very difficult, so if there are certain parts you feel you are better at, feel free to sing only them. Anyways, I promise I’ll edit it the way we will hear your BEST parts
- This is also the first time I’m doing something like that, so be supportive and have fun!
How does it work?
- Send an email with your Name, Age & Country
- Mention in the email if you joined any of the past projects and if yes mention the year
- Send your Audio & video as one / two files
- Make sure we hear only your singing voice in the recording (and not the piano cover. A great way to do that is to put headphones on and listen to the piano over there)
Rules:
- Keep an appropriate language
- Letting you know the project will be released ONLINE
Deadline
All projects should arrive until APRIL 15TH, 2021. Send them all to the following address: CBFbirthday2015@gmail.com (the same one from past years) If you have any questions you can ask me here on the ask box / twitter / email .
Taking part in the project this year + special thanks: Cate Blanchett Daily, Queen Cate, Cate Blanchett Fan, Erich, Abbey and Maya.
FAQs
- Who can participate the project? – Everyone who wants to.
- Can I send a picture of myself with a happy birthday poster? You can include that. but it can’t be instead of the project itself.
- Can you guarantee Cate will receive the book? – sadly not, but we will try our best to make this work.
Hey, everyone!
A bit of news – new magazine cover with an interivew with Cate, UNHCR has released two new videos, and we got release month for Nightmare Alley!
Son magnétisme et sa capacité de pouvoir tout jouer en font une star célébrée. Présidente du dernier Festival de Venise, l’égérie d’Armani Beauty et visage des parfums SÌ, nous parle de confinement, de cinéma et de l’importance d’être singulière.
Elle a incarné deux fois et avec panache la reine Elisabeth Ire. Les mandats de présidente ne sont donc pas de taille à effrayer Cate Blanchett. Elle a mené le Festival de Cannes en 2018 avant de régner, en septembre dernier, sur celui de Venise. «La présidente» Cate Blanchett, outre ses fonctions régaliennes cinématographiques, y a assuré à elle seule le show sur tapis rouge, un red carpet invisible de l’extérieur puisque réservé aux seuls photographes, Covid oblige. Même sans public, elle rayonnait, effet spécial à elle seule avec son élégance jamais prise en défaut, gigantesque et longiligne, teint d’albâtre, cheveux d’or et regard bleu acier, un écrin haute couture idéal pour les créations de Giorgio Armani : Cate Blanchett est l’égérie du parfum Sì et l’ambassadrice d’Armani Beauty, par ailleurs partenaire officiel de la Mostra.
La beauté singulière de Cate Blanchett convoque un imaginaire hollywoodien fantasmagorique – elle possède l’aura des stars des années 1940, comme Katharine Hepburn qu’elle a jouée dans Aviator, de Martin Scorsese -, tout en imposant une implacable modernité : actrice superpuissante, elle est aussi à l’aise sur une scène à Broadway que dans un blockbuster (Le Seigneur des anneaux), une performance (Manifesto, de Julian Rosefeldt) ou une série TV (Mrs America). Bref, Cate Blanchett, deux Oscars, ne dédaigne aucun moyen d’expression et se fait un devoir de défendre le cinéma quel qu’il soit. Interview téléphonique.
Madame Figaro. – Quelle est l’humeur du jour ?
Cate Blanchett. – L’optimisme prudent. Un repli relatif. En ce moment, je vis à la campagne, en Angleterre. Je viens d’arroser les plantes, j’ai nourri les animaux et mon mari fait du pain. Je m’amuse de constater que tous les hommes de mon entourage se sont mis à faire du pain depuis le confinement…Ressentez-vous, comme chacun d’entre nous en cette période de crise mondiale, une nécessité de vous réinventer en tant que femme ou en tant qu’actrice ?
Eh bien, vous savez, c’est inévitable pour chacun d’entre nous, ce sont des mutations auxquelles nous devons faire face depuis des décennies, depuis la révolution industrielle, en schématisant. Depuis, nous acceptons les changements sans trop nous poser de questions. Aujourd’hui, ceux auxquels nous sommes confrontés sont catastrophiques. Cette crise nous oblige donc à faire face à des problèmes préexistants auxquels nous n’avions pas envie de remédier. D’une certaine façon, c’est la nature qui rappelle à notre espèce son obligation d’évoluer. Ainsi, nous remarquons encore plus qu’auparavant les inégalités entre les différentes classes sociales, les populations et les cultures, et cela a tendance à nous diviser davantage. Mais dans le même temps, je remarque aussi beaucoup d’opportunités qui s’offrent à nous. Il suffit de regarder toutes ces initiatives, souvent lumineuses, lancées par des groupes et des individus qui cherchent à vivre différemment. Et ces projets solidaires font boule de neige. Je suis convaincue que le désir de changement est très fort, et qu’il est désormais impossible de revenir en arrière, à notre ancien mode de fonctionnement.Au cours de ces mois difficiles, avez-vous découvert en vous de nouvelles vertus ?
Au contraire, je dirais plutôt que j’ai découvert beaucoup de vices ! Je n’ai pas particulièrement trouvé de solution ni de remède à mes inquiétudes ou à mes craintes, ni même corrigé quelques mauvaises habitudes qui rythment mon quotidien. La seule leçon de vie, finalement, c’est l’apprentissage de la patience, car, comme la majorité d’entre nous, j’aime avancer vite et beaucoup accomplir dans ma vie et dans mon métier d’actrice. Tous ces mouvements ont évidemment été considérablement freinés. L’énergie de l’autre, le regroupement, le collectif, tout cela me manque beaucoup.Êtes-vous quand même revenue un peu à la vie normale ? Avez-vous retrouvé le chemin des studios ?
Le retour à la vie normale ne m’intéresse pas du tout ! Comme beaucoup de personnes qui travaillent, et pas forcément dans le cinéma, je cherche surtout à ralentir et à me recentrer sur moi-même… Pour 2020, j’avais décidé de prendre une année sabbatique, notamment pour mon fils aîné qui termine un cursus scolaire et que je souhaitais épauler dans le but d’améliorer son développement personnel. Le confinement n’a fait qu’accentuer cette pause.Vos projets en cours ont-ils été maintenus ?
Je travaillais avec le réalisateur Guillermo del Toro pour le film Nightmare Alley (un thriller avec Bradley Cooper, NDLR) quand le confinement a été décrété. Rooney Mara (autre actrice du film, NDLR) a accouché de son premier enfant et je suis rentrée chez moi. Je pense que le film doit être au stade de la postproduction. Mais au-delà de l’arrêt des tournages, qui finira par n’être qu’un mauvais souvenir, le vrai challenge, c’est le retour en salles des spectateurs. Je suis obnubilée par cette composante sociale fondamentale sur laquelle repose le cinéma : un film, c’est une histoire projetée sur un grand écran, dans une salle plongée dans le noir, que l’on regarde réunis avec des inconnus, tous ensemble. L’idée, c’est que ce rassemblement, ce cérémonial, est une chose précieuse, une chose qui repousse l’isolement, une chose qu’il faut préserver absolument intacte. Bien sûr, les plateformes de streaming sont incroyables et l’offre proposée toujours plus intéressante et riche, mais je persiste à penser que certaines visions cinématographiques ne se révèlent pleinement que sur grand écran.En tant que présidente du dernier Festival de Venise, vous avez eu la chance de voir des films en salles…
Oui, mon jury et moi avons vécu ce festival comme dans un rêve, et cela semble aujourd’hui assez surréaliste de constater que beaucoup de salles ne sont toujours pas rouvertes. Je suis extrêmement sensible aux festivals de cinéma, à qui j’apporte un soutien total et actif, car ils sont essentiels dans la vie des films et dans la carrière de réalisateurs émergents. Venise, pour revenir à cette expérience, a représenté à la fois une preuve de solidarité et une leçon d’optimisme réaliste. Je suis ravie que cette édition si particulière ait quand même permis de porter la voix et le point de vue de cinéastes qui n’auraient pas eu cette chance autrement. C’est ce qui a rendu cette expérience si unique.À Venise, vous avez également montré une autre facette de vous : égérie pour la maison Armani. Selon vous, quelle est la définition d’une muse ?
Je ne peux pas parler à la place de Monsieur Armani. Mais pour moi, une muse sert à atteindre une certaine vision. Il s’agit d’un point de départ, un préalable pour toute inspiration. Mais pour être honnête, je ne m’envisage pas du tout de cette façon. Je n’y pense pas.Quel est votre lien avec la beauté, en tant qu’actrice et aussi en tant que femme ?
À mon avis, la beauté réside souvent dans cette esthétique japonaise, le wabi-sabi : comment les imperfections, les anomalies, les défauts donnent leur grâce, leur authenticité et leur unicité aux choses. Il m’est assez incompréhensible que l’être humain cherche à gommer ses imperfections au lieu de les travailler ou même de les souligner. Voilà ce qui rend unique, et donc beau. La beauté devrait être, doit être, honnête, sans complexes, et s’enraciner dans la liberté d’être tel que l’on est. Et j’accorde plus de crédit que jamais à la notion de liberté. Bref, la beauté conventionnelle ou uniformisée présente peu d’attraits à mes yeux. Ce qui m’intéresse, c’est de rendre acceptable ou séduisant ce que je possède en moi.Et d’un œil un peu plus superficiel, quelles sont vos astuces pour devenir la championne des tapis rouges comme vous l’êtes, Cate Blanchett, la star hollywoodienne ?
Je ne vois absolument pas de qui il s’agit. (Elle rit.) Si vous parlez d’une beauté supposée, je vous dirais qu’elle se trouve dans l’œil de celui qui regarde. Je n’aime pas les opinions dominantes, les diktats, et je valorise plus volontiers la différence comme vous l’avez compris. J’évite les réseaux sociaux, je fuis la pensée unique et l’hégémonie du goût mondialisé. Je suis en relation avec beaucoup de créateurs de mode, ces hommes et ces femmes ont des talents infinis, et j’estime avoir beaucoup de chance de porter leurs vêtements. Par ailleurs, même s’il m’arrive d’être un peu nostalgique de mes tapis rouge de l’«ancien monde», j’ai décidé dorénavant de privilégier des tenues que j’ai déjà portées au lieu d’encourager constamment la consommation…En tant qu’actrice, considérez-vous votre visage et votre corps comme des outils ? À votre avis, quel est votre meilleur atout ?
Mon meilleur atout, c’est ma curiosité. Pour le reste, oui, le visage et le corps sont des outils et des instruments de travail… Pour s’engager dans un rôle, la seule façon d’y parvenir, c’est de s’approprier le corps d’un autre et de s’immerger dans le monde qui l’entoure.
Madame Figaro – December 18th 2020 (Venice Film Festival Photoshoots)
Nightmare Alley will be released in December 2021. Guillermo del Toro is also putting finishing touches on his other film, Pinocchio, where Cate will voice a character.
.@RealGDT has wrapped production on @Nightmare_Alley
Coming December 2021 pic.twitter.com/WrVh0NnUG8— Searchlight Pictures (@searchlightpics) December 14, 2020
Winter’s bitter cold threatens brave refugee and displaced families every day.
Join UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett and help rush emergency aid and cash assistance to families in need.https://t.co/0H1SV8rUqy pic.twitter.com/4BpPO3G9jP
— UNHCR Canada ?? (@UNHCRCanada) December 11, 2020
Hi, everyone!
We’ve compiled the latest new on Cate these past weeks. She narrated a short video for Beirut, Lebanon and participated in Experience Camps’ Talk About Grief (TAG). New image for Armani Beauty Holiday Campaign is out.
Dal 2013 Cate Blanchett e? la testimonial di Si?, la fragranza di Armani. E anche se non ci tiene a lanciare messaggi planetari, non rinnega l’impegno. Perche? «viviamo in tempi molto introspettivi, c’e? davvero bisogno di aprirsi agli altri»
«Non mi permetto di dire alle donne cosa debbano fare. Ognuna deve essere fedele alla sua natura: e? quello che conta di piu?. Solo se sei davvero onesta con te stessa, quando ti chiedi perche? dovresti dire Si? o No, sai cosa risponderti. E comunque, parlando in generale, preferisco i Si? ai No. Viviamo in tempi comprensibilmente molto introspettivi e c’e? davvero bisogno di essere aperti».
Anche se non e? un periodo facile per fare la testimonial di un profumo che e? una dichiarazione d’intenti esplicita e un po’ rischiosa (dire Si? significa infatti aprirsi al mondo e alle opportunita?), Cate Blanchett prosegue con imperturbabile entusiasmo la sua missione di volto ufficiale della fragranza piu? intrepida di Armani, arrivata ormai al suo settimo anno e a una versione in rosso metal (Si? Passione) dedicata a donne forti e assertive. Che dicono Si?, insomma, solo a quello che pare e piace a loro.
A proposito di donne assertive, e? arrivata di recente in Italia (su Timvision) l’ultima serie di cui lei e? protagonista, Mrs. America, incentrata sulla parita? dei diritti delle donne nell’America degli anni 70. Come e? cambiato il femminismo da allora a oggi?
La serie parla di politicizzazione dell’equita?, di come la richiesta di parita? e uguaglianza sociale da parte delle donne sia diventata una richiesta politica. E? la stessa cosa che sta succedendo adesso con le mascherine. Indossarle si sta trasformando in un gesto politico che, alla base, non lo sarebbe: dovrebbe riguardare soltanto la responsabilita?, il rispetto e la democrazia.
Di recente ha dichiarato che preferirebbe essere chiamata attore e non attrice.
Mi riferivo a un episodio successo a Berlino (la controversa decisione del Festival del Cinema di Berlino di non assegnare premi di genere, ndr). Quando ho iniziato la carriera, la parola “attrice” aveva un senso peggiorativo ma non ho mai pensato che il mio lavoro fosse diverso da quello che faceva un uomo. Il femminismo e? questo: la richiesta di un’uguaglianza genuina, sofisticata, orientata al futuro.
Cos’e? la bellezza per lei? Crede ci siano parametri universali?
Non credo che la bellezza abbia tanti significati diversi. Adesso, pero?, mi sembra piu? evidente che, quanto in passato si considerava bello in un senso mainstream, forse non lo sia cosi? tanto. Ho sempre fatto mia la visione giapponese in base alla quale la bellezza deve avere delle imperfezioni per essere tale. Non sottoscrivo invece l’estetica plastificata: la perfezione non e? perseguibile. E ogni cosa diventa piu? interessante proprio quando inizia a decadere. E per quanto riguarda i parametri universali: no, la bellezza deve sorprendere.
Che rapporto ha con Armani?
Condividiamo l’amore per l’oceano. Per questo sono cosi? contenta di vivere in Australia. E dopo averne parlato svariate volte con lui, alla fine sono riuscita a convincerlo a venire a visitarla. Mi venne anche a trovare nel teatro dove stavo lavorando e fu generoso e gentile, volle incontrare tutte le persone che erano li? con me. Erano tutti eccitatissimi all’idea di conoscere Giorgio Armani e lui fu disponibile con tutti.
Cosa le piace del suo stile?
Quando ero adolescente ero attratta, e lo sono tutt’ora, dagli abiti con una silhouette maschile, e Armani e? stato uno dei primi a proporli. Lo ha fatto anche Yves Saint Laurent, ma in un modo diverso, Armani e? stato capace di sfumare quella linea di demarcazione tra i generi in un modo fluido, sensuale e libero.
You can listen to the dubbed podcast below:
Lebanese director and actor Nadine Labaki has long been friends with Hollywood superstar Cate Blanchett, with the pair having more than philanthropic endeavors and movie experience in common. So, it was inevitable that the talented duo would join forces for something incredibly powerful, and that’s exactly what they have done creating an impactful film depicting the on going crisis in Lebanon.
The #keeptalkingaboutbeirut film reveals the brutality of the explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. The raw footage edited by Nadine Labaki, in collaboration with Lebanese filmmaker Elie Fahed, was captured by citizens and journalists, and shows the real state of Lebanon’s capital. The film’s script, which is narrated by actor Cate Blanchett, was written by Labaki and political activist Sara El-Yafi.
This is not a political battle.
This is a moral and ethical battle.
Thank you @Refugees Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett for this beautiful collaboration. Your voice reminds the world that what happened in ?? concerns everyone
Link in bio for donations #KeepTalkingAboutBeirut pic.twitter.com/oGSuscKwur— Nadine Labaki (@NadineLabaki) November 18, 2020
With millions more people grieving due to Covid-19, Talk About Grief (TAG) is a national campaign to create a more empathetic, grief-aware culture – for each other and for our kids. On National Child Grief Awareness Day, November 19, Experience Camps is coming together with hundreds of partners nationwide to encourage people to share their grief.
Cate’s part starts at 00:52
Refugee drama series Stateless earned 18 nomination in the TV category, including best telefilm or miniseries and acting nominations for Blanchett, Asher Keddie, Yvonne Strahovski and Jai Courtney, but co-star Dominic West missed out.
The show also scored multiple screenplay and directing nominations, as well as being nominated for editing, cinematography, casting and costume design.
Hello, Blanchetters!
A couple of updates, Cate appears in the new British Vogue December 2020 issue and Armani Beauty has released Sì – Holiday 2020 Campaign ad. She is also in talks to play Lady Marchmain in HBO Adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Check them out.
Click image for larger size
The BBC is planning the latest reimagining of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited, with Parade’s End producer Mammoth Screen attaching Call Me By Your Name helmer Luca Guadagnino to direct.
Deadline has heard that a deal for the miniseries is close to being finalized at the BBC and Mammoth will co-produce with Moonage Pictures, which is currently making another ambitious period BBC drama in the shape of Lily James starrer The Pursuit Of Love.
The Daily Mail reported that HBO and a stellar cast — including Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Garfield — have signed up for the Brideshead Revisited remake, though Deadline understands that this is premature.
Mammoth is still speaking to a number of broadcasters in the U.S., including HBO, and casting deals remain in flux. Rooney Mara and Joe Alwyn were two other names the Daily Mail linked to the series.
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder tells the story of Ryder and his friendship with aristocratic family, the Flytes, who live in the palatial Brideshead Castle.
Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Sebastian, who he befriends at Oxford University, and Julia, as the 1945 book explores themes of aristocratic nostalgia, Catholicism, and homosexuality.
Brideshead Revisited was adapted by ITV in 1981, with Jeremy Irons memorably playing Ryder, while it was also the subject of a 2008 feature from Ecosse Films and HanWay Films. Matthew Goode played Ryder in the Julian Jarrold-directed movie.
The Daily Mail reported that Garfield is set to take on the role of Ryder in Mammoth/Moonage’s adaptation, with Fiennes and Blanchett playing Lord and Lady Marchmain. The show is set to go into production next year.
Source: Deadline
Hello, fellow Blanchetters!
Cate has written a piece about hope as part of Vogue’s Hope series. On other news, photographers Firooz Zahedi and Simon Annand are releasing their own books, with Cate as cover of Zahedi’s book and her giving a foreword on Annand’s book. We also have scans from last week’s issue of Le Figaro and The Sunday Telegraph, and screencaptures from This Changes Everything. Check them below.
I hope we can find a way to live together.
It’s so easy to get angry when you know you are right… and sometimes that delicious satisfaction I taste in the echo chamber of my own righteousness is an end in itself.
I’ve been thinking a lot about anger. About the kind of rage and frustration that can take hold of you in the bubble of your car, where you can vent and rant and Be Right — irrespective of reality or of the tedious and confronting complications of other people and other opinions and other anger. And I have been wondering if the internet is the same — a kind of car-like bubble, a non-space that has allowed us all to go deeper and deeper into our private rage and frustration. Where all our (let’s face it) amateur solutions to the world’s problems make such perfect, uncensored and liberatingly unvetted sense. A place where whatever I say goes. A haven for ‘strongman’ attitudes and posturing.
I hope we can find a way out of this bubble, so we can see each other again and relearn how to live together. I hope we can remember not only how to talk to each other, but also how to listen to each other.
Because when I think about those times when I am utterly convinced of my own righteousness, I have to remember the plight of the world’s refugees throughout history — people uprooted by disasters such as famine, war and persecution. Disasters that were, more often than not, created by the whim, instinct or rage of a ‘strongman’ or a belligerent state; bad ideas that led to thousands of young men killing and looting and being reassured that the madness and chaos that they had unleashed was really making the world a better place…
And when, as they always do, those strongmen had withered away — along with their promises and posturing and certainty that they knew best — those refugees who had wandered in search of peace and protection could finally return home or put down roots in new places, having made new families, friends, homes and communities. And for a while, they could live free of the anger and answers from those who know what’s best.
The reason I dwell on refugees throughout history is that when you are exiled and broken, at the mercy of forces beyond your control, the one thing you still have is each other. For the sake of my four children, I have to hope that we can find a way to come together, because there cannot be seven billion ‘number ones’.
On my travels as a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, I once met a young man called Shadi in a refugee camp in Jordan. Shadi had planted a tree in the unforgiving desert soil and watered it every day. He had planted it so it would grow big and strong for his daughter to enjoy in the years to come; but he watered it so that every day he himself could experience and affirm his humanity and his agency — and his hope in the face of overwhelming trouble and chaos.
I share Shadi’s hope — and I stress ‘hope’ rather than Pollyanna-ish optimism, because no matter how hopeless a situation may seem, the answer is to respond with realism, a desire to take up the challenges that undeniably exist, and to accept and then tackle the scale of the task. There are almost 80 million forcibly displaced people worldwide right now — ordinary people forced from their homes by conflict, violence, persecution, and human rights violations. We can help them by coming together, by listening to each other and finding collective solutions. By bursting the bubble, and once again setting ourselves free of the anger and answers from those who think they know what’s best.
Look At Me
The Sunday Telegraph
Hello, Blanchetters! We have compiled June-July 2020 magazine issues with Cate Blanchett plus the Variety: Power of Women tribute for Cate alongside Patti LuPone and Janelle Monáe. Enjoy!
As people in U.K. households step out on front doorsteps every Thursday at 8 p.m. to eagerly applaud, whistle and clang pots and pans in appreciation of the National Health Service, Cate Blanchett and her family raise a ruckus from their countryside home outside London, surrounded by inquiring sheep and cows.
But while the Australian-born actor has her adopted country’s NHS firmly in mind — particularly as it shepherds the U.K. through Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak — Blanchett is also banging the drum for the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, which she has supported since 2014.
“In my heart, I’m also [thinking of] UNHCR staff who’ve remained in the field, away from their families, delivering services at great threat to themselves,” declares the two-time Oscar-winning actor of “Blue Jasmine” and “The Aviator.” “I’m full of admiration for them.”
Blanchett, who instantly brightens speaking of her fieldwork, has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR since 2016, traveling to meet Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, as well as to Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, which is home to thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
According to recent figures by UNHCR and the World Health Organization, more than 70 million people have been forcibly displaced, of which 26 million are refugees, who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 as 80% are sheltered outside camps, often in overcrowded communities with little access to health care. As Alessandra Morelli, head of UNHCR’s operation in Niger, tells Variety, “The coronavirus crisis is one in which old certainties are being shaken and we find ourselves in a permanent state of the unknown.”
And yet Blanchett has tried making sense of the chaos, observing a “connective tissue” between the refugee experience and what millions have now endured in lockdown. The circumstances are vastly different, she acknowledges, but there is a new understanding of the vulnerability of those in camps with limited access to soap and water, where social isolation is unthinkable.
“It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” says Blanchett. “Even if Britain gets [the coronavirus] under control, the movement of people — who are moving because they’re imperiled — means the problem is not going away, and you can have a second or third outbreak.”
Further complicating relief efforts is a temporary suspension of U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, which President Donald
Trump is now threatening to make permanent.“It’s very, very shortsighted,” seethes Blanchett. “It’s so bizarre to me that, in the wake of the pandemic, there’s still this sense of border protection rather than realizing this is a global problem that can only be solved through global connectivity.” The actor is supporting U.N. fundraising efforts “any way” she can. As well, Blanchett hopes her NBCUniversal-produced refugee drama “Stateless,” which launches globally on Netflix this summer, will further the conversation.
Beyond UNHCR, the actor expects to return to an industry that will be “wobbly” but potentially changed for the better. This year’s jury president for the Venice Film Festival, set to run Sept. 2-12, Blanchett assures that plans “are going ahead in a positive, realistic way.”
“We can’t be guided by fear,” she says plainly. “We have to be forward-looking, and in an intelligent way. The systems we were laboring under weren’t working for everyone before. The only opportunity in this is to fix things.”
Hello Blanchetters!
We have added to the gallery the newest issue of Emmy Magazine. Enjoy!
Behind the scenes
Video Screencaptures
Hello Blanchetters!
The cast of Mrs. America graces the cover of newest issue of Emmy Magazine. The photoshoot, by Robert Ashcroft, dates back to the Winter TCA Tour, as it does the video interview from the set.
From the magazine contents – Full interview here
Right Minded
Cate Blanchett leads a stellar cast in Mrs. America, a look back at the feminist leaders of the ‘70s, their political foes and the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment.By now, the Equal Rights Amendment was supposed to be history, not news.
The proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to guarantee equal legal rights for all Americans, regardless of sex. Approved by the House of Representatives in 1971 and by the Senate the following year, it needed to be ratified by 38 states by 1979.
But before that could happen, Phyllis Schlafly stepped in. The story of how the conservative activist defeated the ERA (which has since been revived — and still awaits ratification) is a large part of the story of Mrs. America, the FX on Hulu limited series now streaming on FX on Hulu.
A deep dive into the second wave of feminism (suffragettes were the first), the series challenges assumptions across the political spectrum.
To some, Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) was the enemy, fighting the ERA and other feminist causes. To others, she was a hero: a wife and mother of six whose Eagle Forum promoted traditional values.
From the opening scene — in which Blanchett models an American-flag bikini at a 1971 political fundraiser — viewers may reconsider their opinions of both the woman and the era.
Over nine episodes, the series adds shades of gray to what had been monochromatic views of this history.
“None of us were interested in a piece of advocacy entertainment,” Blanchett says in a Los Angeles studio, where Mrs. America’s principal cast members and producers gathered for their emmy photos. They shared an easy rapport, borne of their five-month shoot in Toronto.
Dahvi Waller, the series’ creator, showrunner, writer and executive producer, recalls early talks with fellow executive producer Stacey Sher, who was determined to present the story “in a nonconfrontational way.” “We have to start talking to each other as humans,” Waller says.
“There is a lot of doctrinaire, binary thinking on both sides,” adds Blanchett, who also served as an executive producer. “These are extremely messy, smart, hilarious women. And we see them from different perspectives. It is interesting to see the contradictions within them.”
Scans will be added as soon as we have them.
As we reported in our last post Cate was on the cover of Sunday Life magazine. We are still looking for the scans, please mail us if you have them.
In the meantime enjoy the most recent magazines scans added to the gallery, featuring interviews promoting Stateless and Mrs. America. Enjoy!
Elle France – April 17th, 2020
People Magazine – May 4th, 2020
Telecable France – May 2nd, 2020
Grazia Italy – April 30th, 2020
Total Film – May 2020
Io Donna Italy – May 3rd, 2020
Hello Blanchetters!
We have added four new magazines to the gallery. The last two are pretty recent, do give them a read.
Io Donna Italy – December 21st, 2019
Harper’s Bazaar Taiwan – February 2020
S Moda – El Pais – March 22nd, 2020
Aventura Magazine – April 2020
A brand new interview promoting Mrs. America has been released today, read it below (Cate also talks about Nightmare Alley)
Mrs. America: Interview with Star and Producer Cate Blanchett
Interview with Blanchett
Career Vs. Home
Cate Blanchett: Gloria Steinem said something fascinating, that she has yet to hear a man ask her advice on how to combine marriage and a career. And here we are in 2020, and we are still asking those same questions that my male counterparts just do not get asked. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to make a series because I feel in a way that each day that went past us as we were filming, the show became increasingly relevant, because the language around how we discuss these women in the world, whether we spend our time primarily in the home or whether we try and work in the workforce and also have a family or whether we devote ourselves entirely to our career or any combination thereof, there is still a sense that we alone have to make this work and that if we fail it is our responsibility. I think there’s something wrong with that system and I don’t think anything has really changed in the conversation around that since 1971, which is when our series starts.Phyllis Schlafly
CB: I had tangentially heard about her. I had seen this little old lady, in her late 90s, being trucked out at the tail end of Trump’s campaign. And there was a standing ovation for her, and she seemed to be very, very important and treated with profound respect by members of the Republican Party. And I found out that that person was Phyllis Schlafly. And then I saw Trump attending her funeral, and I thought who is this woman? And parallel to that, I had met with Stacey Sher and Dahvi Waller to talk about this project. And I like you, I didn’t know much about her at all, but I wondered about why she was so internally important to the Republican Party but yet not so widely known outside of circles. And I think it’s partly because her influence has been so absorbed by the Republican Party. I mean a lot of her achievements, whether you call them achievements, some people will say they are dubious achievements, but achievements nonetheless, is that she has a past on preventing the ERA from being modified, she has quite, singlehandedly I think, embedded into the spine of the Republican Party, the notion of pro-life, pro-family and being pro-American.
All of that discourse came out of Phyllis Schlafly’s activities in the 70s and the early 80s. And I think that what has happened is her achievements has been absorbed by the Republican Party, whereas I think there’s been quite a lot of public rejection of second wave feminism that those women had their own identity. Whereas Phyllis, from my point of view, I didn’t know much about her outside her circle, so it was a really journey for me and one of the primary reasons that I wanted to make the series was to understand what was so terrifying and abhorrent that Phyllis Schlafly and the people who were like minded around her, what was so terrifying about the notion of equality and that was the reason I wanted to make it.Show’s Relevancy
CB: First and foremost, it’s an irreverent human drama, and it speaks to a point in history, but one that we haven’t learned that much from. And so I feel that the conversations and the dialectic and the drama that people experience in the series is very, very current. There were so many times when I would turn to the other actors and say oh my God, haven’t you had this conversation at home or don’t you feel like you are back in 2019? And we are saying we are in 1974, what’s changed?
It is interesting that back in 2001, they did a survey in America, and it was revealed that 72 percent of Americans already believed that the Constitution had specified that all citizens have equal rights irrespective of their gender. And I think that all of us believe that is a foundational given in the American Constitution. But the fact is it’s not, and the fact that it isn’t, means that we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in our legislation, because the Constitution is an inspirational document from which laws spring. And so I feel like our situation as women, but also men and people of various different sexual and gender identifications and people who live on the fringes, still can’t walk into a space and say I am equal because the Constitution, which inspires us to be better people, doesn’t say it’s so. I think that really very little has changed. So I think it’s very, it would be quite shocking to an audiences watch the series and feel like at once they are back in the 1970s, but totally in the time in which we are living right now. Because the show is really a reverse engineering process of how did we get to where we are?Raised by Single Parent
CB: In my high school years, there was a big question whether you identified as a feminist or not. And it was just, I was raised by a single parent, a mother, and my grandmother was in the house, which was great, but my mother had to work. My mother didn’t really identify as a feminist. There was the notion that if you were feminist, you were anti-family. And that of course we all understand that the family is the basic building block of society and the totalitarian regime trying to destroy this and competing loyalties and the main loyalty always has to be in this state. And so feminism was anti-American, anti-family. And my mother kind of grew up with that sensibility, so even though she was a single, working parent, with all of the challenges that that entails, I, her daughter, identified as the feminist, but she didn’t. And so there was a stigma around identifying as being a self-actualized woman who felt like they could achieve anything in line with their male counterparts. And I didn’t understand the problem, but I do realize in retrospect that there was a real stigma that came off the women’s liberation movement because of its branding. And because also, in a way, the interesting thing was that it was women themselves who helped kill the notion of equal rights. And I think that influenced the way future generations of women picked it up.Explaining to her Children
CB: You can say it’s enlightened, but Phyllis Schlafly would say that there was a dogma to feminism, because they were trying to sort of enforce change. And I think in a way one leads by example and if you, I have always tried to tell my boys that my situation and having the ability to work or not work is not the case for all women. And they do understand that, they see other parents at their school and they encounter kind of stereotypical language say in a way say they naturally parody it, because they think it’s ill informed. But I don’t think that they are aggressive about it, because I think if we have learned anything by the second wave of feminism and the fights around the ERA, it’s that fear based language and polarizing discussions and attacks, don’t really progress the conversation at all. And I think that one of the profound things that the series shows and I hope my boys can see, is that there’s a lot of connective tissue between the desires of traditional women and women who are in the feminist camp, that there is a lot more that unites us and separates us. And that what happened in the 1970s was this profound schism happened between women of different ambitions. And I am hoping in a way that “Mrs. America” will be a place where a conversation can be re-ignited around the points of intersections rather than the points of division.Living in England
CB: We are in the country where we live, but yes, we are self-isolating like everybody and it’s very difficult. We are all in it together and some of us are in more perilous positions than others but I think what is revealing to all of us is that viruses don’t recognize international borders and this notion of nation building is a bit spurious really in the wake of a pandemic. It’s also revealing something which we need to do something about as we emerge which is the systems we are living in are very fragile, and it’s pointing out the cracks in those systems. We need to work together with our governments to make sure those systems are fixed so that their citizens are very well served should this happen again. But I am in awe of the people who are, I was just talking to a friend in Queensland and the nurses and doctors on the front lines there and it’s terrifying for them, they have got children of their own and families of their own but they are so committed and I have profound respect and empathy for the position that they are in and gratitude for their service.Working with Del Toro on Nightmare Alley
CB: Guillermo del Toro and I had been talking for years about working together and we had actually been developing a TV series together and for one reason or another, that didn’t happen. And so when “Nightmare Alley” came up I just jumped at the opportunity. And I learned so much from him, as a filmmaker, as a director, he is so generous and transparent about the way he, and clear, about the way he puts the thing together. And there’s no Svengali about him, even though he is a Svengali. He’s so generous about all of the information and he is completely, I warmed to him because Australian filmmaking is by and large, is non-hierarchal, comparatively I think to a lot of other filmmaking processes. And he is non-hierarchal, such profound respect for every member of every department. It was a really warm and inclusive set, but he’s also very muscular as a filmmaker. It was absolutely brilliant, and my filming has completed on that.
Stateless (un)official account will publish tomorrow at lunch time (Australia) a series of Q&A with Cate on their Instagram’s stories here
