Cate Blanchett Quotes
Actress
Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character.
I'm one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset.
I think that's what I love about my life. There's no maniacal master plan. It's just unfolding before me.
Happiness is fleeting - I think that's the main lesson I have learned.
I care about climate change because of our children. I want to safeguard their future.
I miss Brighton enormously, enormously. There is so much I miss, including rain. I miss the verdant countryside.
If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.
Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have met the intelligent, generous, risk-taking, stimulating man to whom I am married. He's really amazing.
If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state.
I think it's so easy to be judgmental of other people's decisions.
There's an expression in Australia that's called 'Go Bush,' which means to get out of the city and relax. I try and 'go bush' to places where there's no cell reception. But, I don't get to do that often, so for the most part, it's just a state of mind.
When a gift is difficult to give away, it becomes even more rare and precious, somehow gathering a part of the giver to the gift itself.
It was only when I realized how actors have the power to move people that I decided to pursue acting as a career.
Who would want a face that hasn't seen or lived properly, hasn't got any wrinkles that come with age, experience and laughter? Not me, anyway.
I'm always without sleep. I've got two kids. I understand sleep deprivation on a profound level.
My everyday beauty routine is always rushed and pretty simple.
If you age with somebody, you go through so many roles - you're lovers, friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers; you're brother and sister. That's what intimacy is, if you're with your soulmate.
I never want to work. Even when you're presented with these great opportunities, I think, 'I really love being in my pajamas with the kids.'
Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?
I feel very comfortable - literally and metaphorically - in my skin.
For 'Blue Jasmine,' I made a decision not to wear any make up in the last shot of the film, as I felt like she had such a mask on - I thought it would be a good idea to leave her with nothing and become completely transparent.
Look, it's one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I'm vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don't know.
An actress once advised me, 'Make sure you do your own laundry - it will keep you honest.'
You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.
I'm not sitting on a soapbox telling women what they should and shouldn't do, but I know what works for me.
Those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences - they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.
I think when I was pregnant with my first child - he's about 10 or 11 now - I first noticed changes in my skin, which can make you panic a bit. I had a bit of melasma.
I'm not focused on what other people think of me.
It is so interesting when you meet an actor in real life and they look completely different.
I don't know, maybe my sons will be gay.
When you are proud of something you have done, and you have made a film you feel has merit, and it's found an audience and is critically well received, that's a pretty pleasurable place to be. I mean, you don't want it gathering dust at the bottom of someone's DVD collection.
There is a societal cost of increased pollution, and that's what I'm passionate about as a mother.
When something is a vocation, you don't really make a decision about it.
For me, I think the bigger something is, the more difficult it is to make it nimble and fleet afoot.
I don't understand a way to work other than bold-facedly running towards failure.
I said to Martin Scorsese, 'When are you going to make another film with a woman at the center?'
I live my life parallel with my work, and they are both equally important. I'm always amazed how much people talk about celebrity and fame. I don't understand the attraction.
The more you can remove the obstacles between you and the world as a woman, the easier and simpler life becomes.
I always dressed as a man when I was at school. I loved wearing a tie and a shirt, and I was always wearing suits. Annie Lennox was my hero. I was always playing men in high school.
I'm not particularly interested in playing characters that think the way I do.
When I have my moments of insomnia, you'll find me on style.com.
I don't mind not looking conventionally - you know, attractive if that's what the part requires.
Armani makes a fantastic lip gloss called 'Beige 100.'
I think marriage is all about timing.
I'm not interested in playing characters who see the world through my prism; I think the journey of understanding any character is to see how they tick and how they differ from you.
I'm either sitting very still or running very fast.
I'm really lazy!
It's important to travel and move and have a continual set of experiences so you've got more to feed back into your work. For me, it's a natural thing.
A lot of people are frightened by old age - by being around people who are, basically, on their way out - but I'm fascinated by it. It's an amazing thing to be around someone who has had a life well lived.
When you're directing something, you absolutely have to be involved in all layers of the process.
I want to be able to follow the example of those extraordinary British actresses who move effortlessly from film to TV to theatre roles.
When you're stretching yourself, as a role like 'Blue Jasmine' did for me, you risk falling flat on your face.
I think Pilates is great, especially when you can do it with a trainer who keeps you on track.
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. Anyone who lives on land has a gun.
Australia is a remarkable country with incredible technical and physical resources and a capacity to be a world leader in renewables.
I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly.
I want to see a connected and progressive future for Australia, where we harness our greatest natural resources: sun, wind, and brain power.
People who say, 'There's nothing to fear from spiders' have clearly never been to Australia.
I think there is a long exploration in American drama of women in particular who, by force of circumstances or because they are predisposed to, choose fantasy over reality.
Before having children, I think I probably approached work very differently, and you become much more economical and pragmatic about your relationship to it.
Some ideas, like what you're going to do with your life, take time to form.
I don't consciously think of how parenthood has changed me but I'm sure it must have.
I am happiest when I don't know what's coming next.
I think I just want to garden - or kill some plants, in my case.
I'm a much healthier person through my relationship with my husband. I've become a more fulfilled person - it's a great partnership.
Marriage is a risk; I think it's a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit.
There is so much talent in Australia.
What I think of as a mistake might be something that does really well at the box office, so I'm my own harshest critic - as we all are, really.
We need to keep switching up the language around climate change.
When you're a performer, of course you want an audience, but it's very, very different from courting fame.
There are very few issues that lie specifically in one region now. Polio in Syria doesn't affect Syria alone. I don't think any issue can ever be isolated into local politics these days, because we all know too much.
I discovered early on that some performers live their life in order to act, so all their relationships are simply an experience that they can feed back into their work. Which I find vampiric.
I'm not well read.
I think the height of ridiculousness was when I was playing Elizabeth in 'The Golden Age' while preparing to start shooting 'I'm Not There.' I literally finished filming Elizabethan grandeur on Friday, flew to Montreal, and started being Bob Dylan on Monday.
There are certain people who prize celebrity over substance. That makes the media world go round. The media needs those people to exist.
I'm constantly humbled.
I saw the first 'How to Train Your Dragon' film with my children, and I found it utterly exhilarating.
When anyone plays a mother on film, there is a whole raft of judgment in that a mother is a particular archetype or that every mother is the same. That's complete rubbish.
I grew up listening to music and going to the theatre.
Being in Australia, I was really sun conscious. For a couple of summers there, I did the baby oil thing, and my my mom said, 'Just don't. You'll regret it.'
When I came out of drama school, I was in a shared house in Sydney.
I remember the first film I did, the lead actor would, in between scenes, be reading a newspaper or sleeping and I'd think, 'How can you do that?' But it's so exhausting, you can't be 'on' 12-14 hours a day.
No one wants to see me struggling to get a horse under control because I can't ride it. And no one wants to see me not knowing how to deal with the psychological makeup of the character.
Well, I've never looked upon myself as being a beauty, per se.
I tend to have this perverse reaction to authority and stress: I become more confident and clear when a challenge is enormous.
All cities do face similar, significant trends in the future... most importantly global warming and climate change.
You do not want to be in a creative organisation with everybody being like-minded and stroking each other's creative egos. You want differences of opinion... constructively.
I've an enormous respect for my mother who at the age of 39 raised three children, and I grew up with my grandmother in the household. And so it was a really strong household of women - my poor brother! It was great growing up with so many generations of women.
I cook a mean Sunday lunch. My idea of Heaven is a lunch outside on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon. It's the time to gather everyone together.
I just don't see myself as the heroine in my own narrative.
The word 'circumnavigate' is quite a beautiful word.
I admire the work of brilliant actresses such as Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren, who have had such varied careers. They have never stopped working, and they are as great today as they ever were.
I think at the prospect of bringing children into the world, your mortality comes very much to the forefront, absolutely.
When I emerged from drama school, I had no expectation that I would ever work in film.
I guess I prefer to be quite private. It's a myth that actors are exhibitionists.
I'm not particularly needy, and I'm not particularly anxious. I don't look for a director to tell me I'm doing a good job or that I'm great. I don't need to be stroked. It's more my own yardstick.
I would have loved to have been an architect - which, actually, would have been a disaster.
It's not the normal way to look at things but I experienced death at a really young age and because of that it's been part of my mental landscape that death is really very possible.
Being on stage a lot is quite physical.