Cate Blanchett

CATE BLANCHETT

Born May 14, 1969, in Melbourne, Australia.

Full name: Catherine Eliza Blanchett.

Kate was born to Robert and June Blanchett. Her father was from Texas and served as a naval officer. After marrying June, who worked as a teacher in a school in Melbourne, he emigrated to Australia and took up the advertising business. When the girl was only ten years old, he died of a heart attack, and raising three children, Kate, her older brother Bob and her younger sister Genevieve, fell on her mother's shoulders.

Kate was educated at Melbourne Methodist Women's College. There was her first appearance on the stage - she took part in several productions of the school theater. She then went on to study at the University of Melbourne, where her disciplines were the arts and economics. Soon, however, she left the university and left to travel around England. When her visa expired, Kate traveled to Egypt, where she met a guest at a hotel who offered her an extra role in an Egyptian boxing movie. Since the girl needed the money, she agreed. This accidental role was the beginning of her journey to the theater and film.

Returning to Australia, Kate went to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Throughout the study period, she was considered one of the most capable students of the course and graduated with flying colors in 1992. After graduation, Blanchett took part in the Sydney Theatre Company production of "Cool Girls" by English writer Karyl Churchill, then performed the role of Felicia Bauer in the production of "Kafkian Dancing". Critics praised her acting skills in this play, and in 1993 Blanchett received an award from the Society of Theatre Critics of Sydney for Best Debut. This was followed by participation in the provocative production of "Oleanna". The role of Carol brought Blanchett a second award - she was named best theatrical actress in 1993.

With success playing in the theater, Kate began to try her hand at television and film. Her television debut was in 1989 when she played a cameo role in the TV series G.P. about the hospital on the outskirts of Sydney.

In 1993-1995, she took part in several fairly successful television films and television series ("Police Force", "Homeland," "City by the Border"), but did not stop playing in the theater. Geoffrey Rush, since college admired the talent of the actress, invited her to the role of Ophelia in his production of "Hamlet", and critics praised her game again. In 1995, the actress appeared in three theatrical projects - "Tender Feba," "Blind Giant's Dance" and "The Tempest" by the same name play by Shakespeare, where she performed the role of Miranda.

In 1996 followed the first notable work in the film - a short drama "Parklands" where Blanchett played the title role. This work required a large emotional return, but Blanchett coped well with the role.

Since then, the attention of the actress has largely switched to film. In 1997, she appeared only in one theatrical production, playing Nina in "The Seagull" by Chekhov, but at the same time on the screens went out just three films with her participation. First there was the role of nurse Susan Macarthy in the drama "The Road to Paradise." This was followed by the romantic comedy "Thank God He Met Lizzie", which Australian critics called the most racy and witty film of the year. The role of Lizzie brought Blanchett her first film awards - an Australian Film Institute Award and an Australian Society of Film Critics Award (both for Best Supporting Actress).

And finally, the third film in 1997 for Blanchett was a historical melodrama "Oscar and Lucinda" by the novel of the same name by Peter Carey. Producers initially resisted the intention of the director Gillian Armstrong to invite Blanchett to the lead female role - at that time it was popular only in Australia and unknown in the United States and other countries - but then relented after seeing previous work of the actress in the movies.

They did not regret their choice: Blanchett brilliantly played the role of a rich heiress Lucinda Leplastriere. Although the film was clearly not intended for a wide audience and did not have a big box office - with a budget of $ 12 million, its profits were only about 2 million, critics praised Blanchett's first major role in a feature film, calling it created the image of Lucinda bright and convincing. In addition, Blanchett was nominated as best actress at the award of the Film Critics Society of Australia.

The main event in 1998 for Blanchett was the role of Queen Elizabeth I of England in the historical drama of Indian director Shekhar Kapoor's "Elizabeth". Blanchett's partners in the film were Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush and Vincent Cassel. Through the role of Elizabeth, Blanchett gained international fame. She was nominated for "Oscar" and the Screen Actors Guild Award, won the "Golden Globe" and BAFTA. The press has again praised her game - according to critics, the actress coped perfectly with the role and created an impressive image of the Great Queen.

In 1999 Blanchett alternated between playing on stage with filming in the movies. She was involved in two theatrical projects in London - the play "Abundance" and the Old Vic theater production "The Vagina Monologues", which brought together a truly stellar cast (in addition to Blanchett on stage appeared Kate Winslet, Julianne Moore, Melanie Griffith and Gillian Anderson). Also on the screens one after the other four films with her participation - a nine-minute short film "Stories of Lost Souls," the melodrama "The Perfect Husband" based on the play by Oscar Wilde, the comedy "Air Force One" and the psychological thriller "The Talented Mr. Ripley.

In the last three films she performed the role of the second plan, with success, embodying on the screen three completely different characters.

In 2000 Blanchett appeared in two films. In the first film - the drama of Sally Potter's "The Man Who Cried" Blanchett played the role of Lola, a Russian cabaret dancer. This film also starred Oleg Jankovsky, who played a cameo role as the father of the main character.

The second film of the year was Sam Raimi's mystical thriller The Gift. The role of psychic Annabelle Wilson was another important milestone in the development of the actress' film career. The film grossed more than $44 million at the worldwide box office, but received fairly restrained reviews from critics, who attributed its success solely to Blanchett's skills.

So, just two years after the movie "Elizabeth", Blanchett became one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood, but because of the busy schedule of filming she had to leave the theater for a long time. In 2001 she starred with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in the crime comedy Barry Levinson's "Bandits.

This was followed by involvement in the first film of Peter Jackson's monumental film trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. In "The Fellowship of the Ring" and the next two parts Blanchett appeared before the audience as Galadriel, the beautiful and powerful queen of the elves.

In 2001 Blanchett starred in two more films - the war drama "Charlotte Gray" and the melodrama "Ship's News. Experience with Gillian Armstrong, the director of the first film, the actress has already had - four years ago they worked together in Australia on the movie "Oscar and Lucinda. This time Armstrong directed a film about the Second World War, and Blanchett played the leading role.

The film, which cost $27 million to produce, was at the time the most expensive British film and unfortunately failed miserably at the box office, grossing only $3 million at home and just over $700,000 in the United States.

Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom's film "Ship's News" also failed to excite the public, despite its strong cast. In this film, the actress played a minor role in the flighty beauty Petal Bear.

In 2002 Blanchett accepted an offer from director Tom Tykwer, author of "Run, Lola, Run" to star in his new film "Paradise". He inherited the screenplay from the famous Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who passed away before he could bring his film trilogy based on Dante's The Divine Comedy to life.

In this dramatic film, Blanchett played the role of Filippa, an English teacher. The film was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, won several prestigious film awards at the homeland of Tom Tykwer in Germany, but did not pay off at the box office.

In 2003, Blanchett starred in another film, which addressed the problem of drug trafficking - a crime drama by Joel Schumacher's "Veronica Guerin" (in Russian box office was called "Hunting for Veronica"). Blanchett playing again did not disappoint critics: they found the excellence with which she has embodied on the screen image of the courageous Veronica.

That same year, Blanchett appeared in an episode of the black and white film almanac Jim Jarmusha "Coffee and Cigarettes". This was followed by a pairing with Tommy Lee Jones in Ron Howard's dramatic western The Last Raid.

In 2004, Blanchett played a minor role as a pregnant journalist in the eccentric comedy "Water Life with Steve Zissou", which was attended by a truly stellar cast - Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Angelica Huston and Willem Dafoe - and then took part in a biographical drama by Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" about the fate of the millionaire Howard Hughes - pilot, inventor, playboy and filmmaker.

The role of Hollywood movie star Katharine Hepburn, Hughes's mistress brought Blanchett resounding success. For best supporting actress, she won an Oscar, won the British Academy Awards and the Screen Actors Guild, has been nominated for a number of prestigious awards, including the receipt of the "Golden Globe". Also in 2004, Blanchett appeared on stage after a five-year hiatus, playing the title role in "Gedda Gabler" by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

In 2005, Blanchett took a short break and took part in a single film at home - a couple with Hugo Weaving, she starred in the crime thriller "The Little Fish. For this role, she received an award from the Australian Film Institute.

In May 2006 Blanchett presented at the Cannes Film Festival a new picture of his participation - a drama by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu "Babylon", where her partners were Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal. Blanchett appeared in the film as a tourist Susan, who, together with her husband crosses the North Africa by bus and becomes a victim of a random bullet. The film was critically acclaimed and won the festival award for best director.

In addition, Blanchett completed filming in the romantic thriller "The Good German" and the drama "Notes on a Scandal." For her role in the latter film, where the actress played a teacher, struck up an affair with a student, Blanchett was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Recently Blanchett again starred in Shekhar Kapoor in the movie "Golden Age" - a historical drama about Queen Elizabeth I of England and her favorite, sailor Sir Walter Raleigh, in the role of Clive Owen. It is noteworthy that this is the second appearance of the actress in the role of Elizabeth I in the project directed by Kapoor.

In 1997, being involved in the play "The Seagull", Blanchett met screenwriter and editor Andrew Upton. A year later, shortly before the actress began filming in "Elizabeth," they were married. The wedding took place in the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Australia. In the summer of 1999 Blanchett starred in her husband's short film "Stories of Lost Souls. At first the couple lived in the coastal region of Sydney, then moved to London. During his marriage to Upton, the actress had three sons - Dashiell John (born December 3, 2001, named after Dashiell Hammett, Andrew's favorite writer), Roman Robert (born April 23, 2004) and Ignatius Martin (born April 13, 2008).

In 1999 People magazine listed Blanchett as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

"The Oscar" given to Blanchett for the role of Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator" is the only award in the history of this award for the role of a historical person, which, in turn, itself was awarded the "Oscar".

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Academy Award:

2004 - Best Supporting Actress ("The Aviator")

2013 - Best Actress in a Motion Picture ("Jasmine").

Oscar Nominations:

1998 - Best Actress ("Elizabeth")

2006 - Best Supporting Actress ("Scandalous Diary")

2007 - Best Actress ("The Golden Age")

2007 - Best Supporting Actress ("I Am Not There")

2015 - Best Actress ("Carol")

BAFTA Award:

1998 - Best Actress ("Elizabeth")

2004 - Best Supporting Actress ("The Aviator")

2013 - Best Actress in a Motion Picture ("Jasmine")

BAFTA nomination:

1999 - Best Supporting Actress ("The Talented Mr. Ripley")

2007 - Best Actress ("The Golden Age")

2007 - Best Supporting Actress ("I Am Not There")

Screen Actors Guild Award:

2003 - Best Actor ("The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King")

2004 - Best Supporting Actress ("The Aviator")

2013 - Best Actress ("Jasmine")

Screen Actors Guild Award nomination:

1998 - Best Actress ("Elizabeth")

2001 - Best Cast ("The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring")

2001 - Best Supporting Actress ("Bandits")

2002 - Best Actor in a Supporting Actor ("The Lord of the Rings: Two Fortresses")

2004 - Best Actor in a Supporting Actor ("The Aviator")

2006 - Best Actor in a Motion Picture ("Babylon")

2006 - Best Supporting Actress ("Scandalous Diary")

2007 - Best Actress ("The Golden Age")

2007 - Best Supporting Actress ("I Am Not There")

2008 - Best Actor (The Mysterious Story of Benjamin Button)

Golden Globe Award:

1998 - Best Actress, Drama ("Elizabeth")

2007 - Best Supporting Actress ("I'm Not There")

2013 - Best Actress, Drama ("Jasmine")

Golden Globe nomination:

2001 - Best Actress, Comedy/Musical ("Bandits")

2003 - Best Actress, Drama ("The Hunt for Veronica")

2004 - Best Supporting Actress ("The Aviator")

2006 - Best Supporting Actress ("Scandalous Diary")

2007 - Best Actress, Drama ("The Golden Age")

2015 - Best Actress, Drama ("Carol")

2019 - Best Actress, Comedy/Musical ("Where Have You Gone, Bernadette?")

Saturn nomination:

2000 - Best Actress ("The Gift")

2003 - Best Actress ("The Last Raid")

2006 - Best Supporting Actress ("Scandalous Diary")

2008 - Best Actress (The Mysterious Story of Benjamin Button)

MTV Award nomination (1998):

Female Breakthrough of the Year ("Elizabeth")

Sputnik Award:

1998 - Best Actress, Drama ("Elizabeth")

2013 - Best actress in a motion picture ("Jasmine")

Sputnik nomination:

2001 - Best Actress, Drama ("Charlotte Gray")

2007 - Best Actress, Comedy/Musical ("I Am Not There")