Top 10 Facts about Cate Blanchett

Top 10 Facts about Cate Blanchett

Catherine Elise Blanchett AC (born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor and producer.   She is the finest actress of her generation.

She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten years old, her 40-year-old father died of a sudden heart attack.

She studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne but dropped out after one year to travel overseas.

While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to play an American cheerleader as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie, Kaboria (1990); in need of money, she accepted.

Upon returning to Australia and after working in the pocket theatres of Melbourne, including La Mama, she moved to Sydney and enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

Blanchett’s first stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the 1992 David Mamet play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company.

Below are the top 10 facts about Cate Blanchett.

 

 

1. Cate Blanchett is the only Australian Actress to win two Academy Awards

she has won the Oscar s two times. She is regarded as one of the greatest performers of all time.

Cate Blanchett received an Oscar nomination seven times and won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and the Best Actress in ‘The Aviator’ and ‘Blue Jasmine,’ respectively.

Besides these, she is a recipient of seven Australian Academy Film Awards, two BAFTA film awards for Best Actress, and one BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress.

Blanchett has also won three Golden Globe Awards, four Helpmann Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. 

2. Cate Blanchett Began her Acting Career in the Theatre

Cate Blanchett is a world-renowned Australian actress who began her acting journey via theater in 1992.

Her debut theater role was in the Sydney theater company play ‘Oleanna’. Eventually, she was cast in several other plays, such as ‘Sophocles’ Electra’, ‘Kafka Dances’, and ‘Hamlet.’

After performing a series of roles in theater, Cate Blanchett was cast in the 1993 TV show ‘Police Rescue’ for a single episode.

Before her movie debut, some other TV shows that she performed in were ‘Heartland’ and ‘Bordertown.’

3. Paradise Road  was Cate Blanchett’s debut Feature Film

 

She made her feature film debut with the movie ‘Paradise Road’. Her first title role was in the romantic drama film ‘Oscar and Lucinda,’ released in the same year.

Her performance was widely applauded and helped her bag more critical film roles, such as Lizzie in ‘Thank God He Mer Lizzie’, Queen Elizabeth I in ‘Elizabeth’, Meredith Logue in ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley,’ and Galadriel in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy’.

Cate Blanchett received her first Academy Award nomination and BAFTA nomination for ‘Elizabeth’. Some of her other notable films are ‘Heaven’, ‘Coffee And Cigarettes’, ‘Veronica Guerin’, ‘The Aviator’, ‘Notes On A Scandal’, ‘The Golden Age,’ ‘Carol,’ ‘Blue Jasmine,’ and ‘I’m Not There.’

4.  Cate Blanchett has led some Highly Visible Activism Programmes

The Australian actress strongly advocates for environmental protection and humanitarian causes.

She is a member of Al Gore’s Climate Project, an ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation, and a patron of SolarAid.

From 2008-2013, Cate Blanchett and her husband launched the Green Globe-winning environmental program Greening the Wharf in collaboration with Sydney Theatre Company. She participated in the Green Carpet Challenge and started a Climate of Change podcast available on Audible.

Regarding her humanitarian efforts, Cate Blanchett had been an active member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2015.

She became a global Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesin 2016 .

At the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Blanchett led Selma Hayek, Kristen Stewart and 79 other female actresses, producers, and directors walking arm-in-arm in a red-carpet protest to demand equal pay for women and an end to sexual harassment in Hollywood.

5.  She is partner to Andrew Uptown

When Blanchett first met her future husband Andrew Upton on a movie set, they didn’t exactly hit it off. He thought she was aloof and she found him arrogant, but the next time they met, things went much better.

They connected over a poker game at a party and ended up going home together that night. Three weeks later he proposed and they married.

Cate Blanchett married Australian screenwriter and playwright Andrew Uptown in 1997. The couple is parents to four children, three sons, and an adopted daughter.

She is the mother to  Dashiell John Upton, Roman Robert Upton, Ignatius Martin Upton, and Edith Vivian Patricia Upton.

6.  Cate Blanchett is Happy to be Licked

You can also find Blanchett on a stamp. The actress was featured on four Australian 55¢ stamps in a 2009 series covering stars.

Cate said she felt “utterly, deeply humbled and chuffed” by the honour. “I’m going to be licked by millions of Australians and I can’t wait,” she joked.

Nicole was equally enthusiastic about the 55 cent stamps, which depict the stars in their most recognised roles, as well as in natural poses.

Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush have also been immortalised on postage stamps in their native Australia after being named legends of the year by the post office.

She also has a wax figure at the Madame Tussauds in Hollywood.Unveiled in 2015, the hyper-realistic statue is in the dress that the actress wore when she won the Oscars for Best Supporting Actress in the film The Aviator.

7.  She is a Resolute supporter for LGBTQ

She might have played the role of a conservative activist who opposes equal rights in Mrs. America, but in reality, she has championed constantly for LGBTQ+ rights.

In the 2015 film Carol, she played a bisexual. The film is considered one of the best LGBTQ+ films, which turned Blanchett into a gay icon.

When Australia had its public vote on same-sex marriage, the actor recorded a video message for the “Vote Yes” campaign urging people to get out and vote.

When the late night talk show host awkwardly tried to ask Blanchett about filming same-sex love scenes in Carol, it was immediately clear the question wasn’t going to go down well. He called it a “tricky subject” and Blanchett was quick to take him down a peg or two.

“Yes, Jimmy, girls have been having sex with girls and boys have been having sex with boys for a long, long time,” she replied.

8.  The First Global beauty Ambassador for Giorgio Armani

In May 2018, Blanchett was announced as the first Global Beauty Ambassador for the brand Giorgio Armani Beauty.

For the last five years, she had been the face of the brand’s Si fragrance and was to represent all of their make-up and skincare products too.

According to Armani, they wanted to work with her because she embodies the choice of the Armani woman.

“Luminous and sophisticated, her natural elegance and distinguished beauty are striking,” Giorgio Armani said in a statement. “I am pleased to deepen our longstanding relationship.”

In an Instagram post announcing the news, the house called Blanchett “a true representative of the values and aesthetic of the brand”.

9. Cate Blanchett has three honorary doctorate degrees!

She has received numerous accolades during her illustrious career.

Besides the two Academy Awards, she also has three Golden Globe Awards and three British Academy Film Awards.

The actress has honorary doctorate degrees from the Macquarie University, New South Wales, and the University of Sydney.

Time magazine named Blanchett one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007.

10. Bollywood Connections raised  her Profile

Kapur is an Indian director best known for his films Bandit Queen (1994) and Elizabeth (1998). He joined the film industry as an actor, making his debut in Ishq ishq ishq (1974; “Love, Love, Love”), directed by his uncle Dev Anand.

Though his acting career did not take off, he remained a sought-after model and took to directing advertising films the feature films.

Notably, Blanchett had worked with Shekhar Kapur in the 1998 film Elizabeth. Kapur is said to have discovered the actress while watching her in the trailer of the 1997 film Oscar and Lucinda.

Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth turned things around for her, and she got huge recognition, including an Academy Award nomination.

It cemented her position, and Blanchett soon became a bankable performer.

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This terrific actress has shown her prowess in all the genres, spread across drama, period pieces, sci-fi fantasy, romance, superhero, and more.

If you’re hoping to find Blanchett joining the legions of celebrities who have embraced social media, you’ll be extremely disappointed.

Blanchett does not buy into selfie culture, and thinks that people worrying about what other people think is “pathetic”. While she does admit that she believes social media does offer people a chance to connect, she has no plans to change her position on joining the fray.