This article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated to include Cate Blanchett’s latest release, Borderlands . Cate Blanchett has been a star since the very first second we met her. Her first-ever movie role, after just a few years in the theater, was supporting Glenn Close and Frances McDormand — two formidable actresses in their own right — in Paradise Road , but that was the last time (even when she was playing smaller roles) she would ever “support” anybody.
Her second film was Oscar and Lucinda , which she stole from Ralph Fiennes at the peak of his stardom; ever since, every Cate Blanchett movie has been A Cate Blanchett Movie. She has become the rare actor who can headline anything, from weepy dramas to action films to experimental art pieces to silly comedies. She graduated from Sydney’s National of Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992, became the hottest theater actress on the continent by 1994, was starring in big sweeping Hollywood romances by 1997, and nominated for an Oscar by 1998.
And she was, of course, just getting started. The key to Blanchett’s appeal and skill, we’d argue, is her ability to combine relatability and elusiveness: She is always completely present and yet just out of grasp. She has been forever daring, uncompromising and perpetually, resolutely, herself.
“I do like to preserve the mystique of the thing, for myself as much as anyone else,” she has said. That’s a combination that’s nearly impossible to come by..