50 Fun Facts About Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett was born in 1969 in which suburb of Melbourne?

Her Texan father was a US Navy chief petty officer whose ship broke down in Melbourne; he died of a heart attack when she was ten.

From which drama school did Blanchett graduate in 1992?

The National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. She had started a business degree at the University of Melbourne first.

Blanchett's first screen appearance was as a cheerleader extra in which 1990 Egyptian film?

She was travelling in Egypt, needed money and said yes to a boxing film.

Her first stage role, opposite Geoffrey Rush in 1992, was in which David Mamet play?

The following year she won Sydney's Best Newcomer and Best Actress awards at once, the first actor to take both in one year.

Blanchett's feature film debut was as a captured nurse in which 1997 Bruce Beresford film?

Glenn Close and Frances McDormand co-starred; it made about $2 million on a $19 million budget.

Who starred opposite Blanchett in her first lead role, Oscar and Lucinda (1997)?

The part of heiress Lucinda Leplastrier had been meant for Judy Davis; Variety predicted the 'luminous newcomer' would become a major star.

Who directed Blanchett as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and its 2007 sequel?

The first film won her a Golden Globe and BAFTA; the sequel made her the only female actor Oscar-nominated twice for the same role.

Which elf does Blanchett play in The Lord of the Rings trilogy?

The trilogy took $2.981 billion worldwide; all three films made Wired's 2012 top-10 fantasy films.

Roughly how much did The Lord of the Rings trilogy earn at the worldwide box office?

The Hobbit trilogy, which brought her back, made nearly $3 billion more.

Which actor played one of the escaped convicts opposite Blanchett in the 2001 comedy Bandits?

The BBC called the pair 'a real find as comedians'; it was her first notable comedy and brought a second Golden Globe nomination.

Who directed Heaven (2002), the first part of an unfinished Krzysztof Kieślowski trilogy?

The New York Times called her grieving bomber 'the most compelling screen performance of her career'.

What was unusual about Blanchett's part in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)?

It earned an Independent Spirit nomination. The same year she was in Ron Howard's The Missing and the biopic Veronica Guerin.

Who directed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, in which Blanchett played a pregnant journalist?

Bill Murray's eccentric oceanographer was the subject of her character's reporting.

Blanchett won her first Oscar for playing which screen legend in The Aviator?

It made her the first actor to win an Academy Award for playing another Academy Award winner. Scorsese had her study the star's first fifteen films.

Blanchett lent her Aviator Oscar statuette to which institution?

Her second statuette came nine years later for Blue Jasmine, making her the only Australian with two acting Oscars.

What is the name of the production company Blanchett runs with her husband?

It co-produced Little Fish (2005), which won her an AFI Best Actress award and took 13 AFI nominations.

Who played the obsessive older teacher opposite Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal?

Richard Eyre directed. Blanchett's lonely teacher, having an affair with a pupil, brought her third Oscar nomination.

In Hot Fuzz, Blanchett made an uncredited cameo as Simon Pegg's ex-girlfriend, named what?

She was a forensic scientist seen only in a mask and gave her fee to charity.

In I'm Not There (2007), Blanchett played one of six incarnations of which musician?

Her Jude Quinn won the Volpi Cup at Venice and a Golden Globe, and she was Oscar-nominated the same year as Elizabeth I.

What is the name of the KGB villain Blanchett plays in the fourth Indiana Jones film?

The 2008 film drew mixed reviews but grossed over $790 million.

Which character did Blanchett voice in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo?

The same year she was Daisy Fuller, the love interest in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Who directed Blanchett as Blanche DuBois in the 2009 production of A Streetcar Named Desire?

Joel Edgerton was Stanley. Meryl Streep said she had never really seen the play until that performance.

Blanchett played Lady Marion opposite which actor's Robin Hood in 2010?

Ridley Scott's epic drew mixed reviews but took $321 million.

In Hanna (2011), Blanchett played a CIA agent named what?

Joe Wright directed; Saoirse Ronan was the teenage assassin and Eric Bana her father.

Which character did Blanchett play in the 2011 Uncle Vanya that toured to the Kennedy Center?

Her husband adapted Chekhov's play; Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh co-starred, and the New York Times called her one of the bravest actresses on the planet.

Her Lord of the Rings elf was written into The Hobbit films by Peter Jackson and which co-writer?

The character does not appear in Tolkien's novel. The Hobbit trilogy earned nearly $3 billion.

Who directed Blue Jasmine, the 2013 film that won Blanchett her second Oscar?

Her Jasmine Francis won more than 40 awards and made her the sixth actress to win Oscars in both acting categories.

Blue Jasmine co-starred Sally Hawkins and which actor?

Mark Kermode likened her performance to a marathon runner ploughing through 26 miles of emotional road.

Which character does Blanchett voice in How to Train Your Dragon 2?

Hiccup's long-lost mother. She returned for The Hidden World and is set to reprise the role in Universal's live-action remake.

Which role did Blanchett play in Kenneth Branagh's 2015 live-action Cinderella?

Time's Richard Corliss said she radiated 'a hauteur that chills as it amuses'.

Carol (2015) adapts which Patricia Highsmith novel?

Todd Haynes directed and Rooney Mara co-starred; IndieWire later ranked her Carol Aird the second-best film performance of the decade.

In Truth (2015), Blanchett played which CBS producer opposite Robert Redford's Dan Rather?

The film covers the Killian documents controversy; her company was a producing partner.

In Julian Rosefeldt's video installation Manifesto, how many characters does Blanchett play?

Twelve artists' manifestos performed by thirteen characters. A New York Times critic said she deserved an art-world Oscar for it.

Blanchett made her Broadway debut in 2017 in which Chekhov adaptation?

Andrew Upton's version of Platonov; it brought her a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

Which goddess of death does Blanchett play in Thor: Ragnarok?

Taika Waititi's film took $854 million; she voiced the character again in a 2023 episode of What If...?

Who directed Ocean's 8, the all-female heist film Blanchett starred in with Sandra Bullock?

It earned over $297 million despite mixed reviews. That year she also chaired the Cannes jury.

Which Jungle Book character did Blanchett voice in Andy Serkis's Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle?

The python was written as a female mentor figure, closer to Kipling's original stories than Disney's version.

Who directed Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)?

The film flopped but her title role earned a tenth Golden Globe nomination.

Which conservative activist did Blanchett play in the 2020 miniseries Mrs. America?

The nine-part FX/Hulu series brought Emmy nominations as lead actress and as a producer.

Who wrote and directed Tár (2022)?

Her fictional conductor Lydia Tár won a second Volpi Cup, a fourth Golden Globe and a fourth BAFTA, plus an eighth Oscar nomination.

Which character did Blanchett voice in the 2022 stop-motion Pinocchio on Netflix?

The circus monkey. Her other del Toro film was Nightmare Alley, opposite Bradley Cooper.

Who wrote and directed the Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer (2024), with Blanchett as a journalist?

Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen co-starred; it brought her another Emmy nomination.

Which character did Blanchett play in the 2024 video-game adaptation Borderlands?

Eli Roth's film was panned and bombed; she had previously worked with him on The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

Blanchett has been married since 1997 to which playwright and screenwriter?

They have three sons and a daughter adopted in 2015, and have lived in Brighton, Sydney's Hunters Hill and East Sussex.

From 2008 to 2013 Blanchett and her husband were artistic directors of which organisation?

Their Greening the Wharf programme put solar panels and rainwater harvesting into the theatre and won a Green Globe Award.

In which year was Blanchett named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador?

She had worked with the refugee agency since 2015 and addressed the UN Security Council on the Rohingya in 2018.

Blanchett was president of the Cannes Film Festival jury in which year?

Two years later she chaired Venice, where she wore only outfits she had worn before to make a point about sustainable fashion.

Blanchett's Madame Tussauds Hollywood waxwork wears a recreation of which dress?

That was the night she won for The Aviator. A bronze statue of her also stands on New York's Avenue of the Americas.

With Nightmare Alley and Don't Look Up, Blanchett broke whose Best Picture record?

Both 2021 films were Best Picture nominees, taking her past de Havilland for the most credited roles in Best Picture nominees by a female actor.

Which Australian honour was Blanchett appointed to in 2017?

France had already made her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2012, and an Honorary César followed in 2022.