Cate Blanchett was born in
Melbourne, Australia on May 14, 1969, to an Aussie mother and a
Texan father. She is of French ancestry, was raised by her
mother following her father's passing when she was ten. She
attended Methodist Ladies College [MLC] where she was part of
"Cato" House drama group. One of her very first plays was "Odyssey
of Runyon Jones"...a fantasy about a young boy whose dog dies.
Cate also directed her fellow students in "They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?". After growing up in Melbourne, she began studies
of fine arts and economics at the University of Melbourne, but,
departed, after a fashion, to continue her education via travel.
After the expiration of her vistor's visa forced her to leave
England, she eventually found herself in Egypt, desperate for
money. In an effort to earn some cash, and get a crack at craft
services, she signed on as an extra in an Arabic boxing film. It
was the first time she had ever been on a film set, but, it
wouldn't, obviously, be the last.
Upon her return to Melbourne, she enrolled at Australia's
prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art. After graduation
she joined the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Caryl
Churchill's "Top Girls", then played Felice Bauer, the bride in
Timothy Daly's musical "Kafka Dances". She won the Newcomer
Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle for her performance.
From there, Cate went on to star as Carol opposite Geoffrey Rush
in David Mamet's searing polemic, "Oleanna", also for The Sydney
Theatre Company. Consequently, she achieved an unprecendented
feat, picking up her second gong of the year by also winning the
Rosemont Best Actress Award. In 1995, she was nominated for Best
Female Performance for her turn as Ophelia in the Belvoir Street
Theatre Company's production of "Hamlet". Her other theatre
credits include Helen in the Sydney Theatre Company's "Sweet
Phoebe", Miranda in "The Tempest", and Rose in "The Blind Giant
Is Dancing", both for the Belvoir Street Theatre Company. Later,
like "Oscar and Lucinda" co-star, Ralph Fiennes, she moved on to
Chekov, playing Nina in "The Seagull".
In the realm of television, Cate co-starred in ABC (Australian
Broadcasting Company) Televsion's "Heartland", winning critical
acclaim in this examination of rural aborigines. She also earned
notice as Bianca in ABC's "Bordertown", as Janie Morris in "G.P.",
and in ABC's popular series, "Police Rescue". Cate revised her
character of Rosie from "Heartland" in the non-feature film,
Parklands. She made her feature debut as a shy Australian nurse
in Bruce Beresford's, Paradise Road. She next starred in Cherie
Nowlan's debut feature, Thank God He Met Lizzie, playing the
title role. For this, Cate won the prestigious AFI (Australian
Fim Institute) Best Supporting Actress Award. Cate's next
venture was the critically acclaimed, Oscar and Lucinda,
directed by noted Australian director, Gillian Armstrong. Cate
captivated audiences and critics alike, playing opposite Ralph
Fiennes, with her bewitching and mesmerizing portrait of Lucinda
Leplastrier.
In June of 1997, she married Andrew Upton, a script and
cointinuity editor she had met on the Parklands shoot. It was
Cate's starmaking portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar
Kapur's Elizabeth that shot her into the stratosphere in terms
of both popular and critical acclaim. Cate's chameleonlike
qualities astounded both the industry and the public. As a
result of Elizabeth, Cate was honored with many awards for her
performance. Blanchett went on to star with Angelina Jolie, John
Cusack, and Billy Bob Thornton in the Mike Newell comedy Pushing
Tin (1999). Although the film got a lukewarm response, Blanchett
was praised for her performance as a Long Island housewife. The
same year, she played another housewife, albeit one of an
entirely different stripe, in Oliver Parker's adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Despite a uniformly strong cast
including Jeremy Northam, Rupert Everett, and Julianne Moore,
the film received very mixed reviews, although, as was usually
the case, Blanchett won praise for her contribution to it.
Remaining remarkably busy through 2003, Blanchett would appear
in no less than five films in 2001 alone. After following
Pushing Tin with a supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley,
Blanchett joined Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci with her role
as a kindhearted though materialistic showgirl in The Man Who
Cried before starring as a fortune teller who may hold the key
to a mysterious murder in director Sam Raimi's The Gift. Gaining
positive notes for her uncanny ability to move effortlessly and
convincingly between a wide range of characterizations,
Blanchett appeared as a hostage of love in the crime comedy
Bandits before re-teaming with Gift co-star Giovanni Ribisi in
director Tom Tykwer's Heaven. Her busy year already off to a
hectic start, Blanchett then faced the daunting task of
appearing in not one but three films with her role as Galadriel,
Queen of Lothlorien, in the eagerly anticipated Lord of the
Rings trilogy. As if her plate wasn't full enough, Blanchett
would also appear in 2001 in both The Shipping News and director
Gillian Armstrong's Charlotte Gray before rounding out the Lord
of the Rings trilogy with The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return
of the King in 2003. |
