ACTOR · BORN 1969
Cate Blanchett
- Born
- 14 May 1969, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Known for
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Mowgli (2018), I'm Not There (2007), The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
43 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Cate Blanchett (born 14 May 1969) is an actor best known for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Mowgli and I'm Not There.
Cate Blanchett over the years
43 Interesting Facts About Cate Blanchett
Interesting Facts (3)
Production Story (10)
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She accepted the role of Daisy Fuller in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) after Rachel Weisz backed out because of scheduling problems.
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She was set to play Portia in Michael Radford's adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004), which would have reunited her with actor Joseph Fiennes, her co-star from the blockbuster Elizabeth (1998), but she had to drop out after discovering her pregnancy. The casting would also have reunited her with Ian McKellen, with whom she appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as Shylock; he ultimately left the project as well.
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She was Steven Spielberg's first choice for the role of Agatha Lively in Minority Report (2002). After the death of Stanley Kubrick, he made A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) his first priority, and she moved onto other projects. She was later able to work with Spielberg in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
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Was set to play Portia in Michael Radford's adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004), thus reuniting with actor Joseph Fiennes, her co-star from the blockbuster Elizabeth (1998), but had to drop out after discovering her pregnancy. This also would have reunited her with Ian McKellen, with whom she appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, who would have played Shylock. He ultimately also left the project.
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Behind the Scenes (5)
Characters & Cast (5)
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She was considered for the role of Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001). The role eventually went to Julianne Moore.
Career & Awards (11)
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In 2014, during the press conference for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) at the Cannes Film Festival, a journalist asked Blanchett who was better between her and Marion Cotillard; she answered that Cotillard was better and praised her performances in La Vie En Rose (2007) and Rust and Bone (2012), and also said that she couldn't wait to see Cotillard as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (2015).
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When she was 18, Cate was on vacation in Egypt. A fellow guest at a cheap hotel in Cairo asked if she wanted to be an extra in a movie, the Egyptian boxing movie Kaboria (1990) [Crabs (1990)], directed by Khairy Beshara. She appeared in three scenes in that movie, and in one of them she was dancing to the main song of the movie.
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In 2008, although she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), she publicly declared that she had voted for Marion Cotillard in La Vie En Rose (2007), and described her performance as Édith Piaf as "astonishing and inspiring". When Cotillard was announced as the winner, Blanchett was visibly happy for her win. In 2012, Blanchett wrote an op-ed for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in Rust and Bone (2012).
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Her first Oscar nomination was for playing Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998), the same year that Dame Judi Dench won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing that same role in Shakespeare in Love (1998). She went on to win her first Oscar for playing another Oscar winner: Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004).
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Was listed as a potential nominee for the 2008 Razzie Awards (but did not make the final ballot) for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), a performance that earned her another Oscar nomination. Had she earned a Razzie nod, she would have been one of the few actors to have a Razzie and Oscar nomination for the same performance.
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Is one of nine actresses who have received an Academy Award nomination for portraying a real-life queen. The others in chronological order are Norma Shearer for Marie Antoinette (1938), Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter (1968), Geneviève Bujold for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Vanessa Redgrave for Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Janet Suzman for Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Helen Mirren for The Madness of King George (1994) and The Queen (2006), Judi Dench for Mrs. Brown (1997) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech (2010).
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Her older brother Bob is smart but has a mild form of cerebral palsy. When they were growing up, Cate always stuck up for him when the other children made fun of him. Later, when she gave birth to her second child Roman, she gave him the middle name of Bob, named after Cate's brother. (Bob is also her father and her grandfather's names.) And when she won the Academy Award as Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013), she thanked him in her acceptance speech. However, by 2019, several publications reported that the two siblings were estranged; that Bob has fallen on hard times and using a walker, and that the wealthy Cate hasn't helped him financially. They also reported that Cate didn't invite him to her 50th birthday celebration.
Life & Family (9)
- #035
Her older brother Bob is smart but has a mild form of cerebral palsy. When they were growing up, Cate always stuck up for him when the other children made fun of him. Later, when she gave birth to her second child Roman, she gave him the middle name Bob, named after Cate's brother. (Bob is also her father's and her grandfather's name.) And when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013), she thanked him in her acceptance speech. However, by 2019, several publications reported that the two siblings were estranged; that Bob had fallen on hard times and was using a walker, and that the wealthy Cate had not helped him financially. They also reported that Cate did not invite him to her 50th birthday celebration.
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An avid fan of the horror genre, her particular favorites were the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone, The Scarlet Claw (1944) being especially memorable. She also includes among her favorites Burnt Offerings (1976) and the Halloween movie series.
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She attended Methodist Ladies College. Her drama teacher Felicity Donnoli met the then 12-year-old Cate in 1981 and saw something special in her, since she became a house drama captain in her first year at the school. Then, she directed a production of interpretive movement involving 30 girls. She later directed the senior school play They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) six years later, adapting the film script into a stage play and held auditions and chose the cast, designed the set and even lobbied the vice-principal of the school to get a budget to get the set built. Mrs. Donnoli remembered Blanchett as a sweet-natured and happy girl. After school, Blanchett studied economics and fine arts at Melbourne University - never graduating - and threw herself into the theatrical world on campus. Blanchett, with two members of the Melbourne University law revue, was on Hey Hey It's Saturday (1971) in 1987 on the Red Faces segment titled "Kate and Simon", but they didn't win the contest. Afterwards, she was accepted into the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney and started her long and prestigious career.
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On December 29, 1997, she married her boyfriend of a year, Andrew Upton. They met in 1996 on the set of a television show. The wedding took place in the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales. She claimed that they didn't take any photographs because they couldn't afford a photographer, even though she was already a working actress, and in fact, shortly after the wedding, she started filming the title role in Elizabeth (1998).
Related pages
- Anna Karenina — Cate Blanchett comes up in the facts on that page
- Emily Watson — Cate Blanchett comes up in the facts on that page
- Irrfan Khan — Cate Blanchett comes up in the facts on that page
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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