Cate Blanchett

Catherine Elise Blanchett (; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor. Regarded as one of the finest performers of her generation, she is known for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and the stage. She has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

After graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Blanchett began her acting career on the Australian stage. She came to international attention as Elizabeth I in the drama film ''Elizabeth'' (1998), for which she won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and received her first Academy Award nomination. Her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's '' The Aviator'' (2004) won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a neurotic former socialite in Woody Allen's comedy-drama ''Blue Jasmine'' (2013). Blanchett's other Oscar-nominated roles were in ''Notes on a Scandal'' (2006), ''I'm Not There'' (2007), '' Elizabeth: The Golden Age'' (2007), and '' Carol'' (2015), making her the most Oscar nominated Australian. Her biggest commercial successes include ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008), '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'' (2008), ''Cinderella'' (2015), '' Thor: Ragnarok'' (2017), ''Ocean's 8'' (2018), and ''Don't Look Up'' (2021).

Blanchett has performed in over 20 theatre productions. From 2008 to 2013, she and her husband, Andrew Upton, were the artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company. Some of her stage roles during that period were in acclaimed revivals of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', ''Uncle Vanya'', '' Groß und klein'' and ''The Maids''. She made her Broadway debut in 2017 in '' The Present'', for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She has also two received Emmy Award nominations for producing and starring as Phyllis Schlafly in the period drama miniseries ''Mrs. America'' (2020).

Blanchett is the recipient of several honorary awards. The Australian government awarded her the Centenary Medal in 2001, and she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2017. In 2012, she was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. In 2015, she was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship. Blanchett has received honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney and Macquarie University. ''Time'' named her one of its 100 most influential people in the world in 2007. In 2018, she was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses.

Early life and education

Blanchett was born in Ivanhoe, a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. Her Australian mother, June née Gamble, was a property developer and teacher; and her American father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett Jr., a Texas native, was a United States Navy Chief Petty Officer who became an advertising executive. They met when Robert's ship broke down in Melbourne. When Blanchett was ten, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to raise the family. Blanchett is the second of three children, with a younger sister and older brother. Her ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and remote French roots.

Blanchett has described herself as a "part extrovert, part wallflower" child. During her teenage years she had a penchant for dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases, at one point shaving her head. She attended primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School; for her secondary education, she attended Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for the performing arts. In her late teens and early twenties, she worked at a nursing home in Victoria. She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne but dropped out after one year to travel overseas. While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to play an American cheerleader as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie '' Kaboria'' (1990); in need of money, she accepted. On returning to Australia, she moved to Sydney and enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Career

1992–2000: Early work and international breakthrough

Blanchett's first stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the 1992 David Mamet play '' Oleanna'' for the Sydney Theatre Company. That year, she was also cast as Clytemnestra in a production of '' Sophocles' Electra''. A couple of weeks after rehearsals, the actress playing the title role pulled out, and director Lindy Davies cast Blanchett in the role. Her performance as Electra became one of her most acclaimed at NIDA. In 1993, Blanchett was awarded the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award for her performance in Timothy Daly's ''Kafka Dances'' and won Best Actress for her performance in Mamet's ''Oleanna'', making her the first actor to win both categories in the same year. Blanchett played the role of Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–1995 Company B production of ''Hamlet'' directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh, and was nominated for a Green Room Award. She appeared in the 1994 TV miniseries ''Heartland'' opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries '' Bordertown'' (1995) with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of ''Police Rescue'' entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 50-minute drama short '' Parklands'' (1996), which received an Australian Film Institute (AFI) nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Blanchett made her feature film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during World War II, in Bruce Beresford's film '' Paradise Road'' (1997), which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. The film made just over $2 million at the box office on a budget of $19 million and received mixed reviews from critics. Her first leading role came later that year as eccentric heiress Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrong's romantic drama ''Oscar and Lucinda'' (1997), opposite Ralph Fiennes. Blanchett received wide acclaim for her performance, with Emanuel Levy of ''Variety'' declaring, "luminous newcomer Blanchett, in a role originally intended for Judy Davis, is bound to become a major star". She earned her first AFI Award nomination as Best Leading Actress for ''Oscar and Lucinda''. She won the AFI Best Actress Award in the same year for her starring role as Lizzie in the romantic comedy ''Thank God He Met Lizzie'' (1997), co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor. By 1997, Blanchett had accrued significant praise and recognition in her native Australia.

Blanchett's first high-profile international role was a young Elizabeth I in the critically acclaimed historical drama ''Elizabeth'' (1998), directed by Shekhar Kapur. The film catapulted her to international prominence and her performance garnered wide recognition, earning her the Golden Globe Award and British Academy Award (BAFTA), and her first Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In his review for ''Variety'', critic David Rooney wrote of her performance, "Blanchett conveys with grace, poise and intelligence that Elizabeth was a wily, decisive, advanced thinker, far too aware of her own exceptional nature to bow to any man. hebuilds the juicy character almost imperceptibly from a smart but wary young woman who may be in over her head into a powerful creature of her own invention." Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' wrote that Blanchett's performance "brings spirit, beauty and substance to what otherwise might have been turned into a vacuous role", and Alicia Potter writing for the ''Boston Phoenix'' stated that, "In the end, Kapur's crown jewel is a tale of twin transformations, that of Elizabeth into one of history's most enigmatic and powerful women, and that of Blanchett into, well, a bona fide screen queen."

The following year, Blanchett appeared in '' Bangers'' (1999), an Australian short film and part of '' Stories of Lost Souls'', a compilation of thematically-related short stories. The short was written and directed by her husband, Andrew Upton, and produced by Blanchett and Upton. She also appeared in the Mike Newell comedy ''Pushing Tin'' (1999), with her performance singled out by critics, and the critically acclaimed and financially successful film ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999), alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. She received her second BAFTA nomination for her performance as Meredith Logue in ''The Talented Mr. Ripley''.

2001–2007: ''The Lord of the Rings'' and established actor

Already an acclaimed actor, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's Academy Award-winning blockbuster trilogy, ''The Lord of the Rings'', playing the role of elf leader Galadriel in all three films. The trilogy was a major critical and financial success, earning $2.981 billion at the box office worldwide, and all three films were later ranked within the top 10 greatest fantasy movies of all time in a poll conducted by American magazine ''Wired'' in 2012. In addition to ''The Lord of the Rings'', 2001 also saw Blanchett diversify her portfolio with a range of roles in the dramas '' Charlotte Gray'' and ''The Shipping News'' and the American crime-comedy '' Bandits'', for which she earned a second Golden Globe and SAG Award nomination. ''Bandits'' marked Blanchett's first notable foray into the comedy genre, with Ben Falk of the BBC
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