by
Paul Fischer
Cate Blanchett looks like the royal
princess she once played in Elizabeth,
the film that also 
garnered
her international stardom. Regally greeting the media in a New York City hotel,
the now three-month pregnant star of The
Missing and the recent Veronica Guerin was relaxed, despite her
recent arrival from Rome where she is filming Wes Anderson's A Life
Aquatic, which finally returns her to lighter, more comedic fare. Blanchett agrees that it
has been quite the year for her or as she puts it, "It's been a smorgasbord
of a year for me." One of the world's busiest actors, Blanchett says that
she has to turn down as much as she takes on, but that is part of the life
of an in-demand actress. "I think one's so called career is a product
of
what you say no to as much as what you say yes to. In the end, I think the
way one chooses work is always instinctual because there is no formula for
making a film that connects with an audience. You can have the best script
in the world, the most extraordinary cinematographer, I suppose an all star
cast, but then it just doesn't work. And sometimes you've got a script that
you kind of feel like you're pushing uphill and then it just takes off. So
it's always risky and that's always exciting. I'm having a great time."
Blanchett thrives on risk, and this year was no exception, first in the dramatic Veronica Guerin, and now in the darker, intense and at times savagely violent western The Missing, from director Ron Howard. As dark as those films may be, Blanchett says that the work for her is fun, and she tries to maintain that no matter how intense the piece. "I love what I do. Every day is fun and I find for something like The Missing, the more intense and broad your preparation is the more fun you can have. It's like anything. You want to move through the technical to the playing of it because no one wants to see anyone's homework. No one wants to see me struggling to get a horse under control because I can't ride it, or see me not knowing how to deal with the psychological makeup of the character. So it was enormous fun and while it always sounds very disingenuous, this was a sublime experience for me. There were so many satisfying strands of filmmaking and from an acting perspective came together that I had a really great time." Blanchett adds that switching on and off when in dark character mode, generally is not too difficult. "Some scenes are more intense than others and I think probably from making Veronica Guerin and going back to work with a young child, your focus has to be almost more intense. You have to switch off at the end of the day because there's a little creature that needs you and I found that quite educational. I have a very healthy relationship to my work and I find that if a scene is working, no matter how intense it is, you have the catharsis on screen and you can let it go. I think it's if at the end of the day you feel like you haven't cracked it, that's when you go home and it's more difficult to switch off."
The Missing is set in 19th-century New Mexico, and revolves
around an estranged father "once gone native" (Tommy Lee Jones) who
comes back home,
hoping to reconcile with his adult daughter Maggie (Blanchett). Maggie's
daughter is kidnapped, forcing father and estranged daughter to work
together to get her back. A tough, violent film, Blanchett was not only
required to ride a horse, but fire guns. It was the latter that she found
the most difficult, "especially from a moral perspective. I never feel
particularly comfortable holding a gun, but
when you're playing somebody who lived in the frontier southwest, guns are a part of their life, so I shot at a rifle range quite a lot. Though we're not shooting full loads, you have to know what the kickback feels like. Anyone who works with guns a lot; knows that it becomes an extension of their body, so I wanted to have that physical relationship to it." Despite its period setting and Western tone, Blanchett, who was never much a fan of Westerns prior to this, says The Missing has its degree of uniqueness. "When I read the script and began talking to Ron, to me the huge departure is that in the classic western, the female characters either are nonexistent, they're the good-hearted prostitute or the maiden who needs to be rescued, but not an essential part of the narrative not riding right alongside the men. Moreover in this, you have three really interesting female characters that are at the centre of the story and propelling the narrative forward, so to me that's a huge massive departure. Also I think too, the psychological development of the characters is never sacrificed for the momentum of the chase, which to me enriches the genre."
In The Missing, Blanchett plays another tortured mother, but would not be drawn on whether she specifically drew on her own maternalism playing this particular tortured mother. "There are many, many different types of parents as there are many different types of children and Maggie's own childhood [in The Missing] is incredibly damaged. The fortress that she's built up around herself and the quality of the lioness that she brings in her protection of her family, I could definitely relate to. But for me it's always the difference in the character that I strive to unlock because any similarity that is there is going to naturally, unconsciously exist. I don't need to mine that stuff." Blanchett laughingly adds that in her own life, she's a bull, not a lion. "I think I've got something tragic like Taurus moon, Taurus sun, Taurus rising. I'm a complete bull."
But not necessarily when it comes to being a parent. Now over three months pregnant with her second child, Blanchett pauses when asked if being a parent has changed her dramatically as both a human being and actress. "My personality hasn't changed but I think my understanding of different types of love has certainly deepened. And I've played a mother before, say in something like The Gift, and one doesn't have to be a murderer to play one, but I think for me, before having a child, everyone told us how things would change, things would shut down, and we'd have to alter our lives. Yes, of course you do, but for me, it's been a very expansive experience." To add to that expansiveness, Blanchett has learned much from her son. "You don't want to admit it, but from an anthropological perspective it's fascinating. I mean, watching him do all the firsts. I mean, in drama school you do all these animal exercises where you move from being an amoebae to having legs, to walking to standing. It's fascinating and he's just beginning to learn to speak. I called him in Rome yesterday and my husband said, "Say hi to mummy" And he paused and went, "Ciao, bella." So once their personality is expressed in words, it breaks your heart." In an age where marriages consistently fail, Blanchett's marriage to Andrew Upton is as strong as ever and is perfectly clear as to why. "I don't talk about it and I think that's why it works: Because I don't talk about it."