At the IWC Private Dinner held at Haute on October 05, 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Wearing Jean Paul Gaultier Couture.
Zimbio
Wearing Jean Paul Gaultier Couture.
Zimbio
Cate Blanchett
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Women of the Year Awards: Cate Blanchett
A legend of both stage and screen, the actress is also a powerful advocate for the rights of women around the world, be they underrepresented film-makers or refugee mothers.
BY LYDIA SLATER
On 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 commitment to promoting women’s rights. She has spoken out about the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns, and as president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival last year, led a protest of 82 women in the industry – including Emma Watson and Kristen Stewart– representing the total number of female directors whose work has been screened in competition there (compared with more than 1,600 men). "I’m never interested in portraying myself," Blanchett tells me, when I finally manage to catch up with her at New York Fashion Week, where she is attending an event. "For me, selfishly, it’s always about trying to understand someone else’s perspective. Often the further from my own experience and my set of values, the more fascinating it is. And the only way we can move forward is to learn from history."
Blanchett, whose father died of a heart attack when she was just 10, grew up in what she describes as "a very strong household full of women – my sister, an architect and urban planner, who I’m very close to, my grandmother and my mother. I had a working single mother, that’s my model."
Perhaps as a consequence, she developed an interest in the history of feminism. "I was fascinated as to why the women’s movement burst through onto the streets," she says. "You felt the world was expanding and growing and changing, and voices that had previously been dismissed were being heard in the corridors of power. But why did that bubble burst in the 1980s and this amazing backlash happen? I’ve always been interested in that area of history. I think it’s really important to fold in the lessons learnt from second-wave feminism."
What has struck her most forcibly, working on Mrs America, is how little has fundamentally changed since Schlafly’s day. "We’re still talking about same-sex restrooms, we’re still talking about women in the military, we’re still talking about reproductive freedom. And how many years ago was that? It really has been Groundhog Day."
Yet some things have certainly altered for the better; notably, society’s willingness to allow mature women to be both seen and heard – and this is arguably thanks to Blanchett herself. Having been the face of Giorgio Armani’s Sì fragrance for six years, she was last year announced as the brand’s global beauty ambassador, fronting all its make-up and skincare products.
Given that she turned 50 this year – an age at which women have historically been relegated to the scrap-heap – it’s a choice that’s both empowering and quietly revolutionary. "I’ve been in a creative dialogue with Armani since I was 14," says Blanchett. "I was always a great lover of masculine tailoring, and Armani was a huge touchstone for me in terms of growing up and developing my sense of aesthetic. And then to finally get to meet him and work with him, not only as a designer but also as a philanthropist –he designed the costumes for a play I directed – and now, being the “face”... It’s incredible, because I know how private he is. He takes a long time to move from being “Mr Armani” to being“Giorgio”, so I really prize our relationship."
On top of acting, modelling and her family responsibilities –she has four children with her husband, the screenwriter AndrewUpton, ranging in age from four-year-old Edith to Dash, who turns 18 in December– Blanchett serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. It is in part for her work highlighting the plight of refugees that she will be honoured at Bazaar’s Women of the Year Awards."When I came onboard, there were about61 million displaced people around the world, and now there are over 70 million– and that’s in just a handful of years. The size and scale of the crisis is so over-whelming that it’s difficult to relate to," she admits.
Her response is to "look for those points of connection, for how similar we are". It is as a parent herself that Blanchett finds her way to connect with refugee mothers, linked by their mutual concern and hopes for their children. "That’s also what I found with Mrs America," she goes on. "The difficulties faced by women on both sides of the political spectrum were identical. We’re always waving our flags of difference, but in the end, the result is to distance women from each other." Blanchett’s mission, by contrast, is to bring us together.
She talks wryly about the ‘mania for busyness’ that afflicts her –"You start to think, if I slow down and step away from this, even fora moment, I may not be able to get back." Again, I sense her longing to retreat to the peace of her own private Eden. "I was so happy the other day," she says. "My husband and I have been using a wonderful landscape architect, Jo Thompson. All of a sudden, all the flowers had come out, and we had 75 jars of honey from our bees..."
But one must hope that she resists for a little while longer at least. Thoughtful, articulate, passionate, brave, beautiful and extraordinarily talented, Blanchett is one of those rare souls who have a genuinely positive and powerful impact on the world around them. We need as much of her as we can get.
Harper's Bazaar UK
A legend of both stage and screen, the actress is also a powerful advocate for the rights of women around the world, be they underrepresented film-makers or refugee mothers.
BY LYDIA SLATER
On 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 commitment to promoting women’s rights. She has spoken out about the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns, and as president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival last year, led a protest of 82 women in the industry – including Emma Watson and Kristen Stewart– representing the total number of female directors whose work has been screened in competition there (compared with more than 1,600 men). "I’m never interested in portraying myself," Blanchett tells me, when I finally manage to catch up with her at New York Fashion Week, where she is attending an event. "For me, selfishly, it’s always about trying to understand someone else’s perspective. Often the further from my own experience and my set of values, the more fascinating it is. And the only way we can move forward is to learn from history."
Blanchett, whose father died of a heart attack when she was just 10, grew up in what she describes as "a very strong household full of women – my sister, an architect and urban planner, who I’m very close to, my grandmother and my mother. I had a working single mother, that’s my model."
Perhaps as a consequence, she developed an interest in the history of feminism. "I was fascinated as to why the women’s movement burst through onto the streets," she says. "You felt the world was expanding and growing and changing, and voices that had previously been dismissed were being heard in the corridors of power. But why did that bubble burst in the 1980s and this amazing backlash happen? I’ve always been interested in that area of history. I think it’s really important to fold in the lessons learnt from second-wave feminism."
What has struck her most forcibly, working on Mrs America, is how little has fundamentally changed since Schlafly’s day. "We’re still talking about same-sex restrooms, we’re still talking about women in the military, we’re still talking about reproductive freedom. And how many years ago was that? It really has been Groundhog Day."
Yet some things have certainly altered for the better; notably, society’s willingness to allow mature women to be both seen and heard – and this is arguably thanks to Blanchett herself. Having been the face of Giorgio Armani’s Sì fragrance for six years, she was last year announced as the brand’s global beauty ambassador, fronting all its make-up and skincare products.
Given that she turned 50 this year – an age at which women have historically been relegated to the scrap-heap – it’s a choice that’s both empowering and quietly revolutionary. "I’ve been in a creative dialogue with Armani since I was 14," says Blanchett. "I was always a great lover of masculine tailoring, and Armani was a huge touchstone for me in terms of growing up and developing my sense of aesthetic. And then to finally get to meet him and work with him, not only as a designer but also as a philanthropist –he designed the costumes for a play I directed – and now, being the “face”... It’s incredible, because I know how private he is. He takes a long time to move from being “Mr Armani” to being“Giorgio”, so I really prize our relationship."
On top of acting, modelling and her family responsibilities –she has four children with her husband, the screenwriter AndrewUpton, ranging in age from four-year-old Edith to Dash, who turns 18 in December– Blanchett serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. It is in part for her work highlighting the plight of refugees that she will be honoured at Bazaar’s Women of the Year Awards."When I came onboard, there were about61 million displaced people around the world, and now there are over 70 million– and that’s in just a handful of years. The size and scale of the crisis is so over-whelming that it’s difficult to relate to," she admits.
Her response is to "look for those points of connection, for how similar we are". It is as a parent herself that Blanchett finds her way to connect with refugee mothers, linked by their mutual concern and hopes for their children. "That’s also what I found with Mrs America," she goes on. "The difficulties faced by women on both sides of the political spectrum were identical. We’re always waving our flags of difference, but in the end, the result is to distance women from each other." Blanchett’s mission, by contrast, is to bring us together.
She talks wryly about the ‘mania for busyness’ that afflicts her –"You start to think, if I slow down and step away from this, even fora moment, I may not be able to get back." Again, I sense her longing to retreat to the peace of her own private Eden. "I was so happy the other day," she says. "My husband and I have been using a wonderful landscape architect, Jo Thompson. All of a sudden, all the flowers had come out, and we had 75 jars of honey from our bees..."
But one must hope that she resists for a little while longer at least. Thoughtful, articulate, passionate, brave, beautiful and extraordinarily talented, Blanchett is one of those rare souls who have a genuinely positive and powerful impact on the world around them. We need as much of her as we can get.
Harper's Bazaar UK
Arriving at The Fashion Awards 2019 on December 2, 2019 in London, England.
Vogue UK
Vogue UK
At The Fashion Awards 2019 on December 2, 2019 in London, England.
Tumblr
Tumblr
Arriving at The Fashion Awards 2019 on December 2, 2019 in London, England.
Vogue UK
Attending the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 05, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California.
Tumblr
Tumblr
At the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 05, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California.
Wearing a Mary Katrantzou dress / Pomellato jewels.
Zimbio
Wearing a Mary Katrantzou dress / Pomellato jewels.
Zimbio
