Doubling as a two-time Academy award winner and a formidable expert in red carpet propaganda, Cate Blanchett, has carved a niche for herself as one of Hollywood regulars who do not stick to trends in terms of style and performances (check up her roles in Thor Ragnarok, The Lord of the Rings, Ocean’s 8 and more). Whiles others might find it difficult to embrace their onscreen talent with a perfect style combo, Cate, does both effortless with less negative critic coming her way, when photos of her waving hands on red carpets pops up or her unisex street style combination is captured by the cameras. In a sit-down interview with Vogue, Cate opens up about fashion, fragrance, feminism, hair-color and ageing.
Starring in movies that later earn her Oscar/Golden Globe nominations, Cate has had a busy routine of maintaining her great fashion style on red carpets (which we are still looking forward to more of them) and it has been gracefully maintained by the actress, thanks to her love for fashion and how she sees it. She told vogue, “I love fashion. I see it all as costume. That’s where it springs from [for me], an interest in character and costume-but also when you get to work with great designers or people who are so good at tailoring or interested in forward-looking ideas.” To the actress, it is not a bad idea to re-wear something worn earlier, since fashion ‘looks backwards to look forward’. “Recently I was unpacking stuff and I found an Armani suit that I’ve had since 1997. You hold onto these things; you don’t necessarily need to have the latest and the new. So, if you have something that’s beautifully made, you keep it and you re-wear it. Fashion always looks backwards to look forward, so why can’t we just recycle and re-wear?” added Cate.
Aside her uncountable awards nabbed in film and television, the actress has been the face of Armani Si Fiori Fragrance since 2014 (the year she won her second Oscar for Blue Jasmine). On keeping up with the order of fragrance and having a noticeable scent, the actress disclosed, “I was given my first fragrance while I was at drama school, my friend gave me a Clinque perfume that she didn’t like. I had absolutely no money. But I think probably even earlier than that I wore perfume. I must have smelled like lavender or violets because that’s what my grandmother smelled of. For me, growing up with my mother and grandmother, and remembering their scents, I felt like one day I’m going to be allowed through the portal into womanhood and I, too will wear a fragrance.”
In 2018, Blanchett was named Festival de Cannes Jury president, a role she dispatched to the core and also used to line-up a gallery of women in film to talk the power of feminism (equal rights and representation). May will mark a year old from the march staged at the Cannes and how effective have the voices women raised in Hollywood being so far. Cate chimed, “I think there are now more women in the writer’s room. There are more women at the center of narratives being optioned and there are more platforms on which to release stories. There are certain stories, from the nineties, about really interesting female lives but they were basically used to tell the same story about a woman. A woman in a man’s world. Whereas I feel now that the complexity and interest of these characters are being placed in very interesting backdrops and the stories that are being told about them are more sophisticated and complex. It excites me, both as an actor but also as an audience member. You don’t have to be in them to consume them.”
Having the checks to sign up for a hair-do color change and of course the face to wear it, Blanchett, popularly described as a Hollywood ‘blonde chick’ only changes her hair color when it comes to performances on stage. “I changed from blonde to brunette [ and then back to blonde] for a play [When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other]. I was on stage at The National. I think I looked like my mother and my sister. It felt like some kind of throwback. I just felt like it was right for the character and it was right for the look of the play. So, I did it for work. I could’ve worn a wig, but I don’t like wearing a wig on stage,” said Cate.
As a decades-based actress and a relevant one too at her credit, with young faces gracing the screens and on-stage plays, Cate’s age (49) would have been a disturbing factor for her, but the ‘Carol’ star actress thinks otherwise from other women, who fear to age in beauty. She told Vogue, “I don’t think about ageing at all until someone brings it up. When I think of some of the most inspiring faces, it’s Louise Bourgeois and Georgia O’Keefe. I’m looking into the spirit of the woman and that’s what I love. Like Mr. Armani, who’s really wanted to capture the spirit of being alive as a woman in his work. You know, it can be sensual, but it can also be full of power, it can be fragile, but it can be wicked. It’s a whole lot of dualities.”
The Hollywood actress with two Oscars, three Golden Globe and three BAFTA awards will next star in the movie ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’.
By: Larry Adams
