Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett.

I definitely know who she is.

I actually don't think I've ever seen a whole movie with her in it.

That's probably shameful. But my excuse is I rarely watch whole movies. I watch fractions of movies usually.

I think she was on some YouTube clips I watched for this blog. Was she in Oscar and Lucinda?

And then I watched a bit of one of her movies on television. I forgot what it was about exactly. Maybe she was psychic? Or she visited a psychic. I think she had a southern accent maybe. There may have been a murder.

Cate Blanchett is the one who attended the 2020 summit so soon after giving birth. At least I think she is.

Well, that's about all I know.

I guess I shall learn more.

I've decided to organize myself better when working with TV/Movie folks. I'm going to ignore most of the career stuff on Lord Wiki....just read the personal stuff. Then I'll get the career stuff from IMDb.com. I think that will work out much better. It will save me some time.

Lord Wiki says baby Cate was born on 14 May 1969. She's a little older than me, and a little younger than Tim. I'm thinking she might be a Gemini, but I'm not sure.

I'm wrong. The birthday website says she's a Taurus. Her numerology number is 8. That's the number that's related to success. I almost just wrote sex instead of success. You know there really should be a sex numerology number.

Blanchett shares a birthday with two big movie directors. George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis.

Baby Cate was born in a suburb in Melbourne called Ivanhoe.

You know what website I haven't visited in too long of a time? Cityhobo! I totally forgot about that place. Let's go there.

Here's what they have to say about Ivanhoe. If you are a head banger into heavy metal music, don't move to Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe is 'pretty suburbia' with plenty of greenery and a bit of olde worlde charm. It's the sort of place that appeals to reasonably wealthy, but not entirely adventurous, people.

I'm not sure if it sounds like my type of place, although I don't like heavy metal music. But I'm also not really into the wealthy suburbia scene.

Cityhobo actually mentions that Cate Blanchett grew up there. I think she may be their claim to fame....that and their Christmas light display.

What would our world be like if we

knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 

Blanchett is part American. Her dad was a Texan. He met his Australian wife when his American Navy ship was in Melbourne. Sadly Daddy Blanchett died when Cate was ten.

Blanchett is a middle child. She has an older brother and a younger sister.

For her early schooling, Blanchett went to Ivanhoe East Primary School. Later she went to Methodist Ladies College. This is the school that Nicola Roxon went to as well.

At the University of Melbourne, Blanchett studied Economic and Fine Art.

When she was eighteen, she visited Egypt. There she was asked to be an extra in a film called Kaboria.

YouTube has the scene. How funny. The person who posted the video highlights Blanchett at the end, but that doesn't look like her to me. I'm probably wrong though.

Later, Blanchett moved to Sydney and attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art. This is that same school that Toni Colette and Judy Davis went to....along with a lot of other people.

Okay, I'm going to skip the big chunk of career info. We'll get to that later.

I'm going to read the rest of Lord Wiki's personal stuff.

Blanchett is married to a screenwriter....Andrew Upton. They didn't like each other at first. She thought he was arrogant. He thought she was aloof. Eventually, they realized they were wrong about each other and got married.

The lovely couple has three sons.

The family lived in England for awhile. Then they returned to Australia. They live in a Sydney Suburb called Hunters Hill. It's north-west of the CBD.

A few years ago they did major renovations on the house to make it more eco-friendly. That's pretty awesome. It seems she's into climate change stuff. She's an ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation.

All right. I'm done with Lord Wiki. I'm going to play a game with Jack, and then move onto IMDb.

I'm back....

Blanchett's first television appearance was in 1993. She'd be about twenty-four then. She was on an episode of a crime drama called Police Rescue.

About a year later she was in that series with Ernie Dingo...Heartland. I remember writing about that. I didn't realize it came so early in Blanchett's career. The series lasted for thirteen episodes.

That same year, Blanchett got a role in the movie version of Police Rescue. It seems she played a different character though. In the TV show, she was Mrs. Haines. In the movie, she was Vivian. Although maybe Mrs. Haines first name is Vivian.

I'm going to have to skip some stuff. I don't have the time or energy to go through everything....but I'll try to NOT ignore as much as possible.

In 1995, Blanchett was in a miniseries called Bordertown. It was about a World War II refugee camp in Australia.

YouTube has a clip. It seems Blanchett playes a person who is an albino.

In 1997, Blanchett was in a movie called Thank God He Met Lizzie. It's a romantic-comedy. It's about a guy who is getting married (to Blanchett), but he keeps thinking about his old girlfriend. That storyline doesn't appeal to me too much.

Also that year was Oscar and Lucinda. I'm guessing this was her big break. She was nominated for an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for best actress. She lost to an actress named Pamela Rabe. But I think Blanchett can rest assured that, for now, she's the true winner. Her Lord Wiki entry is pretty long. Rabe's Lord Wiki entry is very short. That probably says a lot.

Yeah. He who is the winner today, might not be the winner tomorrow.

I've already watched scenes from Oscar and Lucinda, so I think I'll not watch any more....at least not now.

In 1998, Blanchett did Elizabeth. This was a pretty famous movie, right?

Blanchett was nominated for an Academy Award. The movie itself was nominated as well. She lost to Gwyneth Paltrow who won for Shakespeare in Love. I've seen neither of those movies.

Blanchett did actually win some awards. She won a BAFTA award. What's that? Ah! It's The British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The movie was actually British, so that makes sense.

I was going to name all the awards she won, but I'm too lazy. Let's just say she did a good job in the movie. People liked her.

Here's the trailer of the film. It looks like a VERY beautiful movie...amazing sets and costumes. I wonder if it's one of those movies that is great to look at, but boring. Is it one of those movies you pretend to like so you can appear to be cultured and interested in history? Or is it one of those movies where you plan to pretend to like it, but then you actually end up truly liking it?

In 1999, Blanchett did a movie that her husband wrote and directed. It was a short film called Bangers. I think it's sweet that she did that for him. Although if she didn't do it for him, I'd probably think she was a bitch.

Also that year, Blanchett was in An Ideal Husband. It sounds familiar to me, but I don't think I saw it. It's a romantic comedy involving political people. The movie is based on a play by Oscar Wilde.

Here's a scene from the movie. It looks 1970's to me. Blanchett doesn't appear until about 1:56.

Julianne Moore reminds me a lot of Rose McGowan.

This movie is very beautiful too...great editing.

I like the clothes.  The dresses.

Oh. It turns out 1999 was a big year for Blanchett. She was in three movies (four if you count the short one her husband made). 1999 was a bit year for me too. I got married.

One of the movies Blanchett was in was Pushing Tin. This also starred John Cuzak, Angelina Jolie, and Billy Bob Thorton. Is this the movie where Jolie and Thorton met? They dated for awhile, right?

Well, I'm going to take Jack out for some birthday ice-cream. I shall be back and learn more about the movie. I don't think I've seen it, but it does sound a bit familiar....

Okay. I'm back. We shared a chocolate peanut butter milk shake. It was good, but Jack and I both agreed we don't want to see peanut butter again for awhile.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts 

Here's the trailer for Pushing Tin. I think Blanchett here looks like Kim Cattrall in Mannequin.

I actually DID see a whole Blanchett movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley. I remember liking it. I remember Jude Law, Matt Damon, and Gwyneth Paltrow in it. I don't quite remember Blanchett. I mean I remember her vaguely. But I can't remember what character she played. Was she in love with Damon's character?

I'm going to ask Lord Wiki about the plot. I need to be reminded. Well, I don't think he says who Blanchett played.

Maybe YouTube will help to refresh my memory. Here's the trailer. Blanchett says something like I know who you are. Maybe she's the one who first figures it out? Maybe she blackmails him?

I just found this song from the movie. I remember I used to like it.

The psychic movie I saw with Blanchett was called The Gift. Blanchett plays the psychic. She is asked to help find a missing person.

The trivia page for the movie says to prepare for the role, Blanchett visited five fortune tellers in one day. One told her she needed a body guard. Yeah, I think that line would fit for any celebrity.

Here's something funny. The cards that Blanchett uses in her fortune telling are called Zener cards. They're used to test ESP, and not usually used for readings. This website lets you do a zener card test. I'll try it and see how I do.

Oh, I suck.

I got 4 out of 25. The website says I have no psychic abilities. I do actually...a little. But only when I dream.

Here's the trailer of the film.

It's like Medium with southern accents.

Blanchett has something going on with Billy Bob Thorton. He's in The Gift with her. No, wait. He wasn't one of the stars. He helped write the screenplay. It was based on his mother's own psychic abilities. Okay, but they were in Pushing Tin Together. Then they also starred together in Bandits. It's a crime comedy-drama. I don't usually like those movies.

Blanchett won a Florida Film Critics Circle Award for best supporting actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, but lost to Nicole Kidman.

Here's a scene from the movie. I like that song. She sure has a nice kitchen. Oh, the movie is dubbed. Well, it's not dubbed. Someone is speaking the lines over the actors. Still, I love that kitchen. I'd love a water view from my kitchen window. But actually I'd love it only if it were the ocean. Rivers and lakes kind of give me the creeps.

Blanchett was in The Lord of the Rings. I didn't know that. I've never seen the movie, nor could I get through the book. But I did actually read the memoirs of Sean Astin. They were surprisingly good. Yeah. I know. Most of you have now probably labeled me as a literary loser.

Blanchett played Galadriel. Lord Wiki, who is she?

He says....

She's a royal elf. She's telepathic. Blanchett got to be psychic again.

Here's a video someone made to honor Blanchett as Galadriel. Blanchett is good at playing eerie pale people.

She seems a bit like the little empress in The Neverending Story.

In 2001, Blanchett did a Gillian Armstrong movie called Charlotte Gray. Did I talk about that when I researched Armstrong? I can't remember.

Also that year, we had The Shipping News. It's a romantic drama. From what I'm seeing here, Blanchett plays a mentally unwell mother. Lord Wiki says she's abusive. She sells her daughter to the black market. Ouch. The best thing about these stories is they make me feel like a good mother. I've never tried to sell Jack.

Here's a scene from the movie.

Kevin Spacey is sexy in a Ben Linus way.

Crap. The scene is in German.

I'll watch the trailer instead. It has pretty scenery.

I'm skipping more stuff....my apologies.

This movie sounds a bit interesting to me. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It's appealing to me because it involves sharks. I like sharks. Any movie with sharks, cults, or cannibalism will catch my attention.

The plot of a the movie is an oceanographer trying to get revenge against a shark who has killed his partner. It's a comedy...fortunately.

The Central Ohio Film Critics Association gave Blanchett a best actress award. They must really like her. They also gave her an award for Coffee and Cigarettes and The Aviator.

In The Aviator, Blanchett played Katherine Hepburn. Oh! Jude Law plays Errol Flynn in the movie. He's Australian....not Law, but Flynn. I think he's Tasmanian.

The trivia page says that Blanchett had freckles painted on her for the movie. That's cool.

Blanchett won an Oscar for the movie. Go Blanchett!

Here's a scene from the movie.

It looks like a fun film. It won best picture, right? Oh no. I guess not. Which movie won?

That Hepburn/Blanchett accent is hard for me to love. She kind of reminds me of the demon in The Exorcist.

The movie that won that year was Million Dollar Baby.

Anyway, I need to stop watching Blanchett as Hepburn. I pick up accents, and I don't want to pick up that particular one.

In 2005, Blanchett was in Little Fish. It's about drugs. I think I wrote about it before. I don't know why. I think maybe someone did a song for the movie. Maybe Sarah Blasko. Yep. Here's the song.

In 2006, Blanchett starred with Brad Pitt in Babel. I heard of the movie, but never saw it. It's four interlocking stories. That makes me think of that depressing movie that sinks my heart. What was it called? It has the people who didn't pick up the birthday cake because their son had died.

I can't find it. I don't want to think about it anyway.

Here's the trailer for Babel.

I guess the movie is about a gun.

It definitely doesn't look boring. It looks very intense.

In 2006, we have The Good German. I don't remember hearing about that movie. Is it the one that involved insulin? Tim watched a Nazi movie that involved hurting someone with insulin. I wonder if this was it.

I remember Notes on a Scandal. I didn't see it, but I thought it looked interesting. This is the one where Blanchett is a teacher having an affair. Blanchett received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination. She lost to Jennifer Hudson.


The trivia page has a funny. All three actresses in the movie once played Elizabeth I.

She was in the Bob Dylan movie that Heath Ledger was in. I'm Not There. Here's a scene. It's interesting. I haven't actually seen it, but I like the idea of it. She was nominated for an Oscar. She lost to Tilda Swinton. I have no idea who that is.

In 2007, Blanchett was in another Elizabeth I movie. I'm guessing this was the sequel to the first. Yeah. It has the same director.

Blanchett received yet another nomination. Marion Cotillard won. I have no idea who that is either. I'm out of touch with the film industry.

She was in the new Indiana Jones movie. I didn't know that. Well, I might have known. But I forgot.

She was in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Really? I thought Gwyneth Paltrow was the one in that. Maybe they were both in it? Nope.

I get Paltrow and Blanchett confused. Maybe because they were both in The Talented Mr. Ripley. I don't know.

Here's the trailer for the film. I'd like to see the movie one day.

I really need to see it. The premise fascinates me.

As for the future....

Blanchett is going to be in a Ridley Scott version of Robin Hood with Russell Crowe. And there's some other stuff. But it's just rumored, so I won't talk about it yet.

I'm going to read Blanchett's trivia page on IMDb. Maybe there will be something exciting there.

Oh. She played a villain in Indiana Jones. I didn't expect that. I thought she'd play someone's love interest.

She kept and bronzed her elf ears from Lord of the Rings. That's so sweet. She once confessed that she always wanted to be in a movie where she got to wear pointed ears. I'm glad her wish came true.

She likes to make lists, and then cross off the items. I know a lot of people are into that. I'm really not.

She was the Tim-Tam girl in commercials. Really? When she was young?

She was in nine movies with Hugo Weaving. Wow. I think I'm researching him soon. I guess I'll be running into Blanchett again.

She was supposed to star in The Fantastic Mr. Fox, but Meryl Street got the role instead. I have to admit it. I like Meryl Street better. Sorry. I really like her! Blanchett has not yet captured my heart. But maybe by the end of this post, she will have done so. I don't dislike her. I just don't quite like her yet.

I'm going to read some interviews. That might help.

Here's one from Interview Magazine.

Blanchett calls the guy doing the interview Dad and he calls her mom. I don't quite get that.

This interview is weird. It's messing up my brain. I'm going to skip it, and read something else.

Here's a Vanity Fair one.

Her husband has threatened to divorce her if she gets cosmetic surgery. I like that kind of guy. I mean it's not that nice to threaten to divorce someone.   But it's nice to know he's against cosmetic surgery. I'm sure he'd make an exception if she were horribly disfigured in some kind of accident.

The magazine says it was Elizabeth that launched her career.

David Fincher who directed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button also made Fight Club and Seven. He must like working with Brad Pitt. He first noticed Blanchett when he saw her in Elizabeth.

The article says that Pitt played a child in the movie. Really? I assumed they got another actor for that. How did they manage to make him look like a child?

Blanchett talks about how the movie deals with death. She says, We’ve enshrined the purity, sanctity, value, and importance of bringing children into the world, yet we don’t discuss death. There used to be an enshrined period where mourning was a necessary part of going through the process of grieving; death wasn’t considered morbid or antisocial. But that’s totally gone. Now we’re all terrified of aging, terrified of death.

My guess is that some of that comes from the rise of atheism....the lack in belief of an afterlife. I think people feared death less before because they had faith it wasn't the end. Now we're more likely to cling to life. And one of our ways of clinging is to avoid the discussion of death.

Blanchett says, If you age with somebody, you go through so many roles—you’re lovers, friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers; you’re brother and sister. That’s what intimacy is, if you’re with your soulmate.

I think that's true. It reminds me a lot of my parents. I guess it's like Tim and I as well. Unfortunately though, the enemy bit has dominated things a lot. But that's faded now. We didn't give up, and we were able to work through a lot of shit.

Blanchett herself doesn't believe in an afterlife. She can accept death without that notion of comfort. See, I can too....as long as it's the death of an elderly person. I'm not one of those people who gets upset when someone old dies. I mean I'm sad. I know I'll miss them. But I don't think of it as being unfortunate or tragic.

I just hate the death of young people. For them, I want an afterlife.

She and her husband got together when making Thank God He Met Lizzie. He's not the writer of the film, so I'm not sure how that happened.

Here's a quote I can relate to. She says, I think I just want to garden—or kill some plants, in my case. 

That sounds like something I should say.

She has a great quote about plastic surgery:

I look at someone’s face and I see the work before I see the person. I personally don’t think people look better when they do it; they just look different. You’re certainly not staving off the inevitable. And if you’re doing it out of fear, that fear’s still going to be seen through your eyes. The windows to your soul, they say.

I'll admit it. I look down at people now who've had surgery to make themselves younger. I also look down at people who are coy about their age; lie about it or make jokes about being a younger age. I look down at women, in their twenties, who fret about being thirty, and women in their thirties who fret about being forty.

I just had some major synchronosity. I took a break and watched a Mario Bros. cartoon with Jack. The segment he chose for us to watch was about a fountain of youth that turned adults into babies. This corresponds quite well with Benjamin Button. Then also today, someone on Facebook mentioned that an adult in their life is acting like a toddler.

I think this is a spiritual case of synchronosity. I don't think it relates to adults literally subtracting their years. I think it's more symbolic...more like the Facebook update. Sometimes adults act like children.

My feeling though is there really is no huge difference between children and adults; at least in terms of maturity. The adults I know are equally mature to the children I know. I mean, of course, it depends on the individual. Jack is more mature than most adults I know. But if I compared some other children to certain adults, sometimes the adults might win in terms of maturity.

I think the difference between adults and children is adults are bigger. They sometimes have more knowledge as well, but even that I doubt sometimes.

I guess it goes along well with reincarnation. For those of us who believe in it, are children really children? Well, yeah they are. But in some ways, they're also adults.

Maybe it's less about the age of the child, and more about the age of the soul.

It's funny though.

Parents say to children, don't hit. Yet they spank them so they learn their lesson.

Parents tell children they MUST share, yet they say no when the kids ask to play with their expensive jewelry.

Parents insist that their children use their manners. Yet when they order at a restaurant in front of their kids, they fail to say please and thank you.

We criticize children for their loud scenes...their tantrums. Yet we still have ones of our own.

We ask ourselves how can we help our children to grow up to be mature, kind, and responsible adults. It would probably be better if we forget that question, and instead ask how WE ourselves can become more mature, kind, and responsible.

Okay, off my soapbox. Back to another Blanchett interview. I think I'll end after this.

I hate to say this, but I detect a false modesty in Blanchett. Maybe that's why I don't like her that much.

In this interview she's asked if there's similarities between being a 16th century queen and a movie star of today.

Blanchett replies, No. Anyone who says that is insane.

I don't think it's insane at all. I think there's definite similarities. I don't know. I feel Blanchett tries to hard to downplay the celebrity thing. It's definitely better than people who are obsessed with it and see themselves as God. Still. I think there needs to be a balance.

I like her quote here though. She says ...somewhere along the way, in the last century, there became this notion that we all need to be happy. And so nobody fully grieves any more because we can't be seen to be unhappy.

I think that's very true. Unhappiness has turned into such a dirty word. There's this move to be happy and grateful. I think both those things are great. Gratitude is lovely. It's nice to have blog entries where we list what we're thankful for. But I don't think there's anything wrong with saying. Fuck this. My life is shitty right now. I don't feel like being grateful.

Let us wallow in self-pity now and then. After a few days, it gets annoying and you pull yourself out of it. You might need drugs to do that. You might need an inspirational self-help book. You might need a therapist. You might need need a box of chocolates. Whatever.

Life is a roller coaster. If we try to pretend we're on the high part when we're on the low part, I think we're going to mess up our brains.