Cate Blanchett is one for real talk. Take, for instance, the time she called out E! on the SAG Awards red carpet for focusing on her dress rather than her face. "Do you do that to the guys?" she asked.
In a new interview with The Guardian Blanchett once again refused to stand for double standards. Blanchett said she frequently gets questions about about how she balances being a mother with her job acting. "Now, I might be wrong, but I don’t think they put the same question to male actors, do they?" she told Guardian writer Xan Brooks. Touché, Blanchett.
She was also unsurprisingly wise when asked about "whether there remains a taboo in depicting same-sex relationships in mainstream U.S. cinema."
The subject came up because of Blanchett's role in the upcoming film Carol, wherein she plays a 1950s mother in the midst of a divorce who begins a romance with a young shopgirl (Rooney Mara). According to Blanchett, the fact that it's even a discussion "means there are still barriers." She went on: "It’s like the situation with women in film — or, frankly, women in every industry — not being paid the same as men. You have to keep it on the agenda. You have to keep it politicised."
Blanchett said that as an actor portraying a gay woman on screen she is treated like a mouthpiece for an entire population. "The problem is that when you represent a character in a same-sex relationship, it’s like you have to represent them all," she said. "You become a spokesperson, which really isn’t the point. When the time comes that we have a diversity of same-sex couples in film, then the problem is solved, I don’t have to stand for everyone."
Back in May, Blanchett was asked by a Variety reporter whether she had relationships with women. When Blanchett answered in the affirmative, her comments were widely misinterpreted to mean that she had relationships of a sexual nature. Blanchett explained to The Guardian that she meant her answer to have "inverted commas," only that implied punctuation didn't come through in the article. She also noted that wasn't asked whether she went to "journalism school" because she played Mary Mapes in the Rathergate film Truth. "If I played someone who has an affair, I think a reporter would probably think twice before asking, ‘Ooh, how many affairs have you had?’ It would be a slightly delicate area," she said "But there are no holds barred about asking me whether I’ve had relationships with women."
Ultimately, Blanchett has a simple but important message: tell varied stories so films like Carol aren't outliers. Oh, and, think twice before asking a gendered question.
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