by Paul Fischer

Cate Blanchett rushes into our interview with a certain determination, just hours before the North American premiere of Veronica Guerin, the true-life story of the Irish journalist-turned-anti-drug crusader and one of three films Blanchett will have in theaters in the next year, including Ron Howard's The Missing and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. Blanchett took on the story of crusading Irish journalist Guerin, a woman she found to be "enigmatic and incredibly passionate." Blanchett recalls being "fascinated by the whole socio-political environment she was working in. Most of the films I had seen about Ireland were about the clergy and the IRA. To learn about the rampant drug problem in the 80's and 90's, because the government was so concerned about the IRA and the subversives and paramilitaries, the drug barons were left to rampage about unchecked. I was fascinated by the circumstances."

One would imagine that playing such an impassioned journalist might make her more respectful of journalists. Blanchett laughs at the notion. "It's a weird feeling. It wasn't that I found a newfound respect. It's one thing if you just had a baby and the [paparazzi] are trying to come to your house to get a picture. Come on, how important is that to the world? Compared to Veronica, other journalists who were writing about the same thing said that everyone knew what was going on. You just needed to get these people on the record. She was actually trying to achieve something and I think that's a bit more important."

Blanchett says that she relates to Veronica's sense of passion but not necessarily her ruthless need to succeed. "I starve for new experiences, and that aspect of her I respond to." Blanchett calls London home these days "for no other reason than because it worked out that way," and as hard working as she is, Blanchett's family comes first, now that she is both wife and mother. "I think that when children are very young they just need to feel secure in their immediate environment. They are much more portable than when they start going to school and connecting to peer groups. You have a window and it depends on the personality of the child. I am not frightened of change. I was never frightened of parenthood. Everyone kept saying how things would change, like this giant weight would descend, but I'm sort of one that welcomes a challenge. I found it sort of expansive."

Her film career goes from strength to strength, beginning with The Missing, a dark western thriller, in which she plays a mother whose daughter is kidnapped. Tommy Lee Jones also stars as her estranged father. "I saw it the other day and it's one of the scariest films I've seen. It's pretty unusual for a Ron Howard film." Blanchett is currently co-starring as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, and insists that audiences "won't get some half-baked caricatured performance. That was something Marty was clear about. He's trying to capture the spirit of the time. You've got to adjust your performance to the tone of the film, which is about Howard Hughes. It was a very private affair. Being an actor myself, who you are to the public onscreen bears very little resemblance to you private life. Who was the private Katherine Hepburn? That is the enigma." Perhaps that sums up the enigmatic Ms Blanchett!