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Cate Blanchett Press Conference
How much did you play with the idea that Elizabeth suffered from madness?
“It's interesting, yeah. I don't think I thought about it a lot. I
did it in about three or four scenes, one of which was cut because it was
talking about Mary Stuart. I think they decided there was a bit too
much discussion about Mary Stuart, so they cut it out. But I tried to see
through, and of course it's not in it all, her self-medicating with herbs
and being physically unstable. Because I thought at the time that I'm
playing her, she would have been quite menopausal. That she was going
through ‘the change’."
She was in her 40s?
“I think at the time I keep telling Remi, who shot it, to take off
the stockings that he was shooting me through to show a
few more wrinkles. (Laughing) But, you know, Shekhar likes women to look
beautiful. So yeah, in terms of that madness, it was what was not only
going on for her psychologically, but what was going on for her
physically. I think that's great that you got a little texture of that,
but I think the whole complexity of what I was trying to do maybe wasn't
in the film.”
Do you think if it wasn't for Elizabeth, England would be speaking Spanish
today?
“Quite possibly. But it's a really interesting thing to look at
history, the history of failure. If we analyzed history, the failures
that took place rather than the victories have influenced us incredibly,
the way we've ended up where we are today. But absolutely, it would have
been a very different place.”
Can you talk about your role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
“I can't. I'll be shot. And so will you. (Laughing) Don't joke, there's
FBI people on the set.”
Could you talk about being part of such an iconic franchise like that?
“It's such a well-oiled, as you say, iconic franchise, and one in
which I grew up with. And on the first day of shooting, it was extremely
surreal. I was watching the monitor as Steven [Spielberg] set up the frame, and I knew
the iconography of the frame. I knew the trucks; I knew the layout. I knew
the way these things were lit, but yet when I was meant to enter the
frame, it was a real [surreal] moment. So it's been fantastic and
so much fun. And my boys have had an absolute ball. I've got a couple more
weeks.”
Are they sworn to secrecy too?
“Yeah. Absolutely.”
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