Cate Blanchett is tied with Emma Thompson for my #1 favorite celebrity/person/actress/fantasy girlfriend. I find Cate to be exquisitely beautiful and mind-numbingly talented, but with all of that beauty and talent, she still seems… real. She seems like fun. She seems sassy and interesting and up for a good time. Maybe she’s a little eccentric, but that’s part of her charm. What I’ve never really doubted about Cate is that she’s a confident woman, because she has so much to be confident about, you know? But Star Magazine is trying to convince me that my fantasy wife is deeply flawed and racked with self-doubt. Blanchett, please.
Cate Blanchett has one of the most flawless faces in Hollywood, but Star has learned that the actress has become an insecure recluse!
“Cate is suffering a major midlife confidence crisis,” stated a close insider. “She thinks her kids are growing up too quickly and it makes her feel old.”
The Oscar winner, 43, is the mom of three children – Dashiell, 11, Roman, 8, and Ignatius, 4 – and is fretting about her appearance.
“She feels like she’s always being watched and is very self-conscious,” admits the spy. “She used to be so outgoing, but now she’s very shy. Her friends have tried to discuss it with her, but she just plays it off, claiming she has a case of real-world stage fright.”
[From Star Magazine, print edition]
Well, she was JUST at the premiere of The Hobbit last week (I’ve included a couple of photos below from the premiere), so it’s not like she’s holed up somewhere, getting boozy and obsessively applying eye cream. Or maybe that’s what she did at The Hobbit afterparty? Anyway, I think this is probably more about Cate’s lack of Hollywood drive, and I’m not saying that in a bad way at all. She just hasn’t made a lot of movies over the past few years, mainly because she and her husband were working in Australia and committed to stage work. But there is some good news… Cate has about a million projects lined up or already in postproduction. 2013 will The Year of The Blanchett!!! HUZZAH. Maybe then she’ll finally leave her husband and she and I can marry in Washington State? (Huzzah to you, Washington state!)
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Cate Blanchett and her husband are the current heads of the Sydney Theatre Company. That’s a huge responsibility and a great way to cultivate Australian theatre and give something back! I knew there was a reason i loved her
She looks young and she is a marvellous actress that so may envy! I Love Cate!
meant to say…so many!
Rachel Weiz looks way older.
She doesnt only have a huge amount of talent but she has this movie star beauty. there are lots of beautiful women and you could argue some of them are more beautiful but she has this special kind of beauty i like in a movie star.
Who else could play Galadriel and Bob Dylan?
Im not worried about her, she always was down to earth, not in the “real” sense of the word as she obviously is really artsy, but she has a good head on her shoulders. she was never into the hollywood lifestyle and never an attentionwh”’.
ITA.
With her talent, who needs to be a fame ho? Plus, she started out as a theatre actress and it’s clear that it’s there, not in Hollywood, where her heart is. And good for her for wanting to raise her boys in an at least semi-normal environment Sydney, rather than Hollyweird.
I also agree regarding her looks. Actresses like Charlize Theron or Monica Bellucci are more ‘beautiful’ than Cate, but she’s got a certain something which is unique to her.
I can only repeat some very wise words:
Blanchett, please.
I dunno, sounds like idle gossip to me. Obviously I don’t know her personally, but Cate doesn’t seem like the type of woman who’d have ‘friends’ who gossip to the press. In any case, there’s nothing remarkable about these ‘revelations’. So a woman in her 40s sometimes think her kids are growing up too quickly and sometimes frets about the fact that she’s not quite as young as she used to be?
Pretty much describes every 30-something woman (and man) that I know. Double meh.
+1
Exactly! The passage of time catches up with us all emotionally when we see our kids get bigger. And, from a physical standpoint, having to go back and play an immortal elf 10 years later — that’s going to make any woman look at the lines on her face. But I have a tough time imagining that Kate is falling apart and pre-agoraphobic over it. She probably cracked a joke about being middle-aged at an after-party, and it morphed into this ridiculous article.
She was just nominated for an Evening Standard Award… I hardly call that agoraphobic and theater is so much tougher than film. It’s not like you can photoshop wrinkles while on stage. And even before, she was never one for the over-exposure… We blast them if they pop out everywhere like in Chastain’s case, we come up with crazy things when they don’t. I actually like when they keep a low profile… and Blanchet’s a pro at that.
It’s toxic when they’re overexposed, it’s like there’s an umbilical cord with the audience. I for one don’t need to know where they are 24/7 or what they’re doing.
Good point about the overexposed part. Wasn’t that what Blanchett said in her interview before?? And she’s right. Look at what happen with Angelina Jolie.
Agreed… and the thing is that the wider your pitch, the more haters – which seems as a given now but it hasn’t always been like this – and also the more deserters. I was okay with Fassbender before 2011 but now he’s a major turn off. Jolie has a major troll problem, fine, movie stardom is the ABC of Hollywood and with it, come great inconveniences, but Jolie like Knightley, of her own device or not, gets the brunt of what’s the worst on the Internet and wherever. In her case, she was good before she was famous where as nowadays, you have to be famous in order to be good.
With Blanchett, there was always gravitas in her performances. She just is one of those GREAT actors… and I rarely use great in sentences referring to actors. She has range, charisma and a sort of regal modesty. She doesn’t come off as pretentious, entitled or needy. She just has that poise that shouldn’t be considered as optional by all these starlets in their 20s, who think they are / or who are sold as the best “It thing” since Monroe and Hepburn.
I have to disagree on something: Jessica Chastain was in, like, 100000 movies last year but, honestly, how many of them were seen? I only saw 2: The Help and The Tree of Life and she still, to this day, isn’t some kind of “Jennifer Lawrence overexposed thing”. Actually, how many people do know her name or can recognize her? I suppose Zero Dark Thirty is going to help her image A LOT but still…
We are the ones that know who she is because we read gossip blogs but outside the internet nobody knows her whereas Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart ARE extremly overexposed and none of them seem to have half the talent Jessica has.
Don’t get me wrong… I like Jessica just fine, she’s lovely and I totally agree, aside from Tree of Life, she didn’t carry any of those films by herself – as in she wasn’t the only focal point… Take Shelter was a Michael Shannon tour de force, The Debt was an ensemble piece, no one saw Texas Killing fields, in The Help she had a minor role while Coriolanus was underrated and also went unnoticed… I’d liked if she were nominated for Tree of Life but aloof O’Mara had to be nominated cuz Lisbeth Salander was such a strong contender. That should’ve been Noomi’s nomination three years ago but that’s another discussion.
I mentioned Jessica because unlike overrated Lawrence, plain Stone and emo Stewart, firstly she’s in a different age category and secondly, cuz for such a low profile, she pops out everywhere, sure most don’t know her but she’s there and for some weird reason unlike those three graces – pun intended – there’s a current of strong annoyance with her. Because she’s like Schrodinger’s cat… she is and at same time isn’t everywhere. She burn in two years like other in five and it’s a badly managed case of over-saturation. Lawrence is over-exposed as well but she’s affirmed her personality to the public, she’s that quirky, neighbor’s next door type of gal, with two franchises and 10 more million dollars than your average neighbor. Jessica’s team should manage her profile better, I mean that age thing, could’ve been easily bean dealt without all that fuss. I mean sure she stroke gold but either you go low profile like Blanchett, either you go for the spotlight and make yourself an image that you portray to the world. And that GQ pictorial was so not the way to go. Even her fashion sense is off at times.
And please the Oscars are a public thing, you can’t tell me that the average moviegoer hasn’t heard of her at least three times before this year. People heard of her, they just don’t know her yet they tend to dislike her just cuz.
Oh, I totally agree with you. I think it was a case of “I have never worked in my life, I am too old and need to already break out so let’s take any role I’m offered”. I remember reading that Al Pacino basically told anyone who would listen about Jessica and how good she was so I think that is one of the reasons why she made a lot of movies last year but I also think she wasn’t lucky with the timing because The Tree of Life was shot waaaaay before The Help but for some reason Malick took his time to put it out, otherwise, we wouldn’t be discussing her overexposition.
I think her biggest problem is exactly what you said: Jennifer has a franchise and now she is the only American actress with one because KStew’s Twilight has ended and Emma’s Spidy thing is not going to last much longer so people obviously are all over her kissing her ass and praising her when she does not deserve it (which is terrible, I have to say). The fact that Jessica is a Julliard graduate speaks volumes though. I just simply hope she gets that Oscar this season and slows down a bit; she is doing Bradway now so that’s good, maybe she will go make another movie and dissapear until she has to promote a movie that nobosy is going to see, sadly.
BTW, I LOVED your description of JenniferEmmaKristen you should have included “hypocrite Watson” there.
I jsut wish these crop of “it girls” would give serious and interesting interviews like Keira has been given lately. There you have a former “it girl” who actually has her own thing going on and not just “blah Harvey Weinstein supports me” thing.
Ugh, I cannot even believe Jennifer could be winning an Oscar this season. She is mediocre at best.
Sasha, that’s not what happened with Jessica. Most, if not all, of her films were shot several years ago and were sitting on a shelf. They all received the go ahead to distribute in the same year which made it look like she had made them back to back in a very short space of time, and also why she was suddenly poping up in so many films.
It happens all the time with film distribution. especially when a hot franchise seems a better guarantor of box office gold than some drama even if it is Terrence Mallick. The film sits on a shelf to await another release date where it won’t get crowded. sometimes it is also about studio not being happy with the finished product so wait for a time slot in the year to open up that will give it better audience eg ONE FOR THE MONEY, shot in 2010, released in 2012. THE HOST, shot in late 2010 or early 2011, to be released in 2013, THE GREAT GATSBY shot earlier this year for a xmas 2012 release but has now been pushed to next year, date undetermined.
i do agree that Jessica’s profile has been mismanaged.
i am so glad Keira wasn’t or hasn’t been sucked into the Weinstein machine.yet. Watson met him at the BAFTAs weekend one year and completely changed her life goals ie she dropped out of school or seems to treat it as a pop in store, immediately picked up a beauty/fashion line and generally started making all these films as though her life depended on it. Until that moment, she had always seemed pretty consistent about her life goals and what she wanted to do with her life etc but her change in life goals can be attributed from that meeting.
i am disappointed with her because she seemed to be following the Portman route. All these actresses become so insecure after they have been harvey’d.
I agree with both of you and I know that Tree of Life was filmed in 2008… and now Malick’s filming back to back… which is fine if you’re an ardent fan of him but his technique tends to put me off… I get it that he edits his movies to suit his artistic purposes but with To the Wonder he basically chopped the film… It’s the same with Hemsworth, he had two movies out this year, aside The Avengers bonanza, which were made, ages ago… I dislike this current trend of the distributors be it premeditated or accidental, where they basically launch movies back to back starring the same actor…. There was nothing wrong in the ’90s and early ’00s, when A-listers had one movie per year… It was quite rewarding in a way, for the fans and public alike. Now if an actor doesn’t at least have two movies out there per year, it’s like he doesn’t exist. Gimme a break, this trend only leads to over-saturation and that in turn, leads to annoyance for the actor in case. And I don’t mean Jessica, choose your pick… and it’s not just one year, it’s every year until like Channing they decide to take break. Lol. Please, keep overlooking the good actors and keep selling me all these other commercial starlets.
Anyway, I’m actually glad she didn’t go franchise-wise, she was offered a part in Iron Man 3 and turn it down… which shows that she’s not into all the crap that 20 year old actors do nowadays to establish themselves out there… They’re mostly putting themselves on the market and choosing the easy way out or in, whatever you like… Franchises the way they are now, take all the fun from the francise. And please, don’t jinx it, but aside from Mama, she’s got that double feature with McAvoy which I hope is going to go well… For someone of his caliber, McAvoy is way underrated… and do you notice how easy it seems for actresses to get a nomination and how hard from some actors… I mean come on you nominate Jonah Hill and Mellisa MccArthy and snub McAvoy and Knightley for Atonement… what’s wrong with you people? Just shows where the system stands..
Which brings me to Keira… geeez… do you remember when everyone seem to hate her as if she was the one who got minicoopered. In Keira’s case I can actually call myself a fan and sure she’s no Streep but you can’t compare the two… Jessica’s no Sarandon either. Knightley is articulate without sounding too pretentious, and it’s self-depreciating but in a funny, verging on sad way, unlike Lawrence, who just sounds stupid. Fine, she’s 22 but come on, I’ve seen 14 years more articulate than her. It stopped being funny after her second interview. Keira took those critical beatings – many of them gratuitous – and she’s still not over them. They’re different styles, of different range but still people hated on Keira and have started on Jessica (just check JJ for example) simply because she was and is successful without selling her soul to Harvey and LiLoing around from bar to bar. She deserves an Oscar nod for Karenina and not because that movie is an Oscar bait but because is such an encompassing role. And please, Lawrence is fine – I liked her in Winter’s Bone but SLP is not what Oscar movies used to be. If it weren’t for Weinstein, that movie would’ve gone unnoticed, it’s just not great.. De gustibus and whatever.
As for Watson, I didn’t expect much from her… but following the same routine as the others in her age group, is just boring. Oh Harvey, where art thou… It’s as if they have no expectations for themselves, they just take the Harvey Express to stardom and exposure. And that’s currently the expression of being a great actor… Gimme a break… At least Radcliffe actually tries to do something… Sure for girls is so much harder than for guys but selling yourself short, it’s sno solution either.
And to get on topic, Blanchett rocks. 🙂
I call BS, Cate is lovely, love her..
and doesn’t every mother feel that way at some point-not sad, maybe nostalgic?
The Midlife Crisis is no respector of how awesome you or your life might be at the time. You can’t control whether it hits you. Luck of the draw!
Read up on it- it is a bitch!
Absolutely. It SUCKS.
I believe there’s a grain of truth to this article even though CB is and ALWAYS has been da bomb.
I turned 40 over the summer. I always get told I don’t look even close it but it doesn’t matter. when it hits you, it hits you. I own 3 businesses and am a mom and never used to fret about aging and then BAM…high maintenance, insecurity kicked in. My poor, sweet husband…bless him!
Cate looks BEYOND gorgeous and has aged better than most actresses her age I can think of.
Celebitchy has become my favorite gossip site. I nearly fell out laughing from this line “it’s not like she’s holed up somewhere, getting boozy and obsessively applying eye cream.” 🙂
I hands down love Cate B. She is interesting watch. Never dials in a performance etc. If there is any truth to that ridiculous US article, I would have to say getting older can be tough especially in the film industry. However it sounds like she has a great family life and more going on than being seen on red carpets.
I must admit my level of anxiety did increase as I have gotten older. There are topics that challenge me from time to time: love, children, family, global warming, the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex, losing weight to name a few but not all at the same time. :)~ At times I get choked up out of no where: subway, waiting for to pay for my coffee, just last night at dinner with BF.
Kaiser, I will fight you tooth and nail for Cate and I’m as hetero as the day is long, lol. Seriously, I adore this woman…gorgeous, smart and talented, sigh. If I could trade lives with one person in this world, it would be her.
Looks like she gave in and had some work done. She’s “squinting” from the sun, yet nothing crinkles on the forehead or between the eyes. Shame.
I was thinking the same thing. Also, her face looks impossibly smooth in the first picture. She never had many wrinkles anyway, but not even the most youthful looking 43 year old (and I’m the same age as Cate) can have such a smooth forehead.
It’s up to her, of course, and it’s easy for us to criticise – we don’t have to see every tiny detail of our faces magnified on the big screen. But I always feel a little pang of disappointment when ‘cool’ talented women like Cate give in to demand that every woman has to have a face as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I felt the same way looking at pics of Helena Bonham Carter, who has clearly had work done, despite her ‘don’t give a f***k’ attitude.
BFD…She still doesn’t look like she’s over-done anything.
She has that super thin pale skin that would probably age terribly if she didn’t help “stop it in its tracks”. I don’t see anything wrong with a little help/work as long as it’s not abused and done tastefully.
I’d agree, if she were a model or a lesser actress. There used to be a time when women aged on screen. I suppose I just miss that, as the expressions and histories on their faces made the characters richer and more interesting. Bette Davis, for example, had a fascinating face that told a million stories, as she got older. Also, they were more relatable to women who aged along with them.
So as a lover of cinema, the fakery is depressing.
Not sure about pale skin ‘ageing terribly’. I have the same skin tone as Cate and am around the same age, yet regularly get mistaken for someone 10 or even 15 years my junior!
@goodquestion.
Agree completely. Although Cate is certainly beautiful, she isn’t Scarlet Johansen or Mila Kunis – her career depends on genuine talent (and loads of it) not on maintaining the illusion of youthful ‘beauty’. It’s true that whatever work she’s had done has been well done, but let’s just hope she doesn’t go the way of her fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman and be unable to move her face before long. I doubt she will, but who knows?
The fact that she is in Hollywood, is a high probability that she has had work done.
However, that is not always the case. Meryl Streep is 60+ with skin that doesn’t match up to what we think 60+ should look like.
If a person takes care of their skin and health, and don’t mess around with things distress the skin and or their genetics are so inclined, it is possible to be 43 or older and have no wrinkles. hollywood or regular life.
Being a theatre actress, Cate needs her facial muscles to emote. Film requires you to move very little or not at all, which is why botox is not such a big problem for film actresses but would be a huge no no for theatre actresses. people need to be able to see your expressions in the cheap seats!
Is Cate still the rep for SK-II or was she replaced by Kate Bosworth? If she was replaced, that may make her feel a little old. (I’m not saying I agree; Cate is stunning)
Cate is my fantasy wife. She is so amazing.
I don’t care if she does have wrinkles. People age. Beauty standards are ridiculous for the normal lady and I can’t imagine the pressure put on someone in the biz.
Ageism is alive and well. It is one of the last bastions of safely being able to trash people. Our society does a poor job of holding up middle age and above that. One almost becomes invisible after a certain age. It is sad to me.
Oh, jeez. Enough with the “she looks young, she looks old” crap. Women need to stop defining themselves by their looks and let other define them.
They can try and try again to knock her down but she will never fall. All hail queen cate of the universe u are my mentor of life.
What the FUG is she doing to her hair??? That clip alone says mid life crisis. I hope she gets better fast and brings back the fierce!
I am not sure at all that she’s jacking her face, she obviously avoids the sun, which is the prime cause of damage.
very relieved she didn’t utter the words herself.
that would move her from the good column to the goop column.
idk if she’s been tweaking or not but respect for keeping her original nose. hollywood has a weird fetish about a certain style nose that leaves most actresses looking near identical. yes, it might get you in the door but how is it beneficial in the long run to look like every other wanna be? the nose gives the face a uniqueness- unless it is ginormous, then character. idk. who doesn’t love frances mcdormand? she looks like a real person and is talented. don’t hear much about her because she chose to pursue acting in a different way, not based on looks. did she want to be an angelina jolie beauty/goddess/cookie cutter stereo-type? maybe. but she’s done pretty good for remaining true to herself.
Growing her hair out; torn cause I love her short hair. Rachel Weisz and her are my favorites and I think both are very real. Would not believe that Cate is having a crisis; just tabloid making a story.
It’s not that she is old, she acts old and she talks old. Otherwise, she is one of the most beautiful women today. Her look is always enchanting.
She was so amazing in that movie with Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal. She is a brilliant actress.
BS on the tabloid stuff.
I LOVE Cate Blanchett. I think she’s stunningly beautiful and extremely talented, and seems like such a great lady.
I love that she never bought into all the Hollywood fame stuff. She has a fantastic career but kept herself and her life very real, and both she and her family are the better for it.
This HAS to be total idle gossip. She has only ever projected strength and quiet but powerful confidence of presence. You know, like if she were side by side with pretty much ANY actress in her early-mid 40’s – or, hell, any actress in her 30’s – she’d own the camera. She’s compelling, smart and interesting.
Aging just sucks, though, and I think we all try and be cooler about it than we really feel behind closed doors. I turn 40 next year and have great facial skin, and like Christina I get mistaken for being 10 years younger. WHEN I HAVE PANTS ON to cover my spider veins and red old lady marks. Or WHEN I HAVE MY CLEAVAGE COVERED to hide my obviously aging decolletage due to decades of not realizing one needs to apply sunblock to places other than the face, eyeroll. My boobs used to be big in the fun way; now they are big in the holy shit they are drooping nearly to the “skinniest point on the body” according to Stacy London. I need MAJOR scaffolding to make those things look as young as my face.
Anyone have any suggestions on good stuff to help out decolletage? Cream or something?
I’m 44, and my grandpa is 95, my great aunt 101, and they both have birthday parties this weekend. I told Haze (my aunt) that I was having a midlife crisis, and she told me to stop the rubbish and live a free life.
I have such a huge girl crush on Kate! I think she is gorgeous and probably the best actress out there! So talented!! Love her!!
Goigeosity!
However, she’s human & she prob has her own insecurities as do most of us. She’s MY secret gf, she and Tilda Swinton-and a few others.
My son worked with her recently. He isn’t anyone special (well, I think he’s terrific) and she did not have to be so gracious and friendly to him. He told me that she is lovely to look at, too. I wish I looked half as good.
Cate is WAY MORE beautiful than the vast majority of Hollywood “girls”. I think the fact that she doens’t play the game may get lips flapping about this. But I am not buying it.
Cate has NOTHING to worry about. When you have style and substance in spades- you can do what you want.
It’s almost like she’s taken on the worries and fears of her character in Benjamin Button….. Worried about wrinkles and growning old…..
it’s probably Jessica Chastain insecurity.