O
n a golden afternoon last summer, Cate
Blanchett invited me to a picnic in the garden
of her English country home. Escorted by
her children and dogs, we made our way across a plank bridge to a tiny, grassy
island in the middle of a lake. Homemade quiches had been laid out under a tree,
and we sat there together, sipping chilled rosé and putting the world to rights.
I found myself wondering how she could resist the temptation to turn her
back on her demanding career and relax into this idyllic rural existence. ‘There
are so many books I haven’t read, so many films I haven’t watched, so many
conversations I haven’t had, so many plants I haven’t planted,’ she agreed,
dreamily. ‘I’m always saying I’m going to give it up. I think I’m done – but
then someone presents me with a challenge.’
Eighteen months on, any thoughts of lotus-eating seem to have been put
on hold for the foreseeable future. Professionally, Blanchett is more in demand
than ever, and she seems absolutely unafraid to take on roles that push her to
her limits. ‘You always have to risk failure’ is her motto, and she lives up to it.
At the start of this year, she appeared on stage at the National Theatre in
Martin Crimp’s play, When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. Based on
the 18th-century epistolary novel Pamela, the play explores sadomasochistic
themes so disturbing that members of the audience were said to have fainted.
‘I always see theatre as a provocation,’ Blanchett said at the time; and while the
production itself was controversial, her own performance was widely praised.
Subsequently, she spent the summer in Toronto, working 16 hours a day on
the forthcoming television miniseries Mrs America. As well as producing it,
Blanchett takes a leading role as Phyllis Schlafly, the anti-feminist campaigner
who, in the 1970s, successfully mobilised conservative opinion against the
Equal Rights Amendment, arguing that it would remove special privileges
given to women, such as separate bathrooms, and the right not to be called up
for the army. Schlafly’s campaign is said to have profoundly damaged the women’s
liberation movement; as for the Amendment itself, it is yet to be passed.
It seems an unexpected choice of part, given Blanchett’s long-standing