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    • Cate Blanchett: “Borderlands” film is not “Citizen Kane”
    Albany

    Cate Blanchett: “Borderlands” film is not “Citizen Kane”

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

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    NEW YORK – Cate Blanchett had no intention of spending the lockdown with a PlayStation 5.

    “It was COVID, and I did everything I could to keep my kids away from video games, like, ‘Let’s go outside!'” recalls the actress, who has four children with her husband, playwright Andrew Upton.

    But then director Eli Roth came forward about a new film called “Borderlands” (in theaters Friday), a crazy space adventure based on the popular video game series. He wanted her to play Lilith, a hardened bounty hunter tasked with bringing back the missing daughter of an arms dealer (Ariana Greenblatt) with the help of an unconventional team of treasure hunters (played by Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Florian Munteanu).

    Blanchett, 55, found the game “quite addictive” and was drawn to the predominantly female characters and fan base. “I thought, ‘This could be really interesting,'” she says. “There was always a nod and a wink in the game; a deliberately B-grade mix of thick science fiction and spaghetti western.”

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    She also had the opportunity to work with Jamie Lee Curtis and Gina Gershon, playing Lilith’s long-time friends. “Jamie is just extraordinary. And when Gina walked on set, it was like va-va-voomas she always does,” Blanchett recalls with a grin. “I mean, it’s not ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ It’s not ‘Blade Runner.’ It’s its own weird, weird thing, and when you look at the cast, there’s something colorful about it.”

    “We’re a very diverse bunch, in life and in art. (laughs.) I don’t think anyone would call ‘Borderlands’ art, but it’s fun.”

    Cate Blanchett took on the role of “Tár” on the set of the film “Borderlands”

    “Borderlands” was shot in Budapest in the spring of 2021, just before Blanchett traveled to Berlin that summer to shoot “Tár.” In the Oscar-nominated film, she portrayed the fearsome (fictional) composer Lydia Tár. Between takes on “Borderlands,” she practiced conducting while wearing Lilith’s red-haired, gun-toting costume.

    Switching between characters “was a joy,” Blanchett recalls. “On weekends I would immerse myself in Mahler, go through the music and have piano lessons. And then I would go back to my day job, which involved running, punching, kicking and jumping – it was quite schizophrenic! But it was liberating. They were so energetically and intentionally different.”

    Roth remembers the whiplash: “It was crazy to see her go from flamethrower to baton,” he says. “But she’s not Cate Blanchett for nothing – she can do anything.”

    For a film that received few awards, Tár has left a unique footprint in pop culture since its release in 2022. Despite being a nearly three-hour drama about cancel culture and the creative process, the film continues to generate countless online jokes and merchandise two years later, with many fans of the film talking about the disgraced Lydia as if she were a real person.

    “The memes!” Blanchett says, smiling. “It’s so interesting. Who would have thought? I mean, I knew it was something special when I finished it.”

    Cate Blanchett tends to make “crazy, unconventional” career decisions

    During her three-decade career, the Australian icon has consistently exceeded expectations. She has been nominated for eight Oscars and won two for her roles in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine. But she has also taken big leaps, playing Bob Dylan (I’m Not There), a fairy queen (Lord of the Rings), a Marvel villain (Thor: Ragnarok) and a wordless ape (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio). So Borderlands should come as no surprise.

    “I like these crazy, random, off-the-wall questions,” says Blanchett, sitting at an office window in a baggy black suit and green Diadora sneakers with “Brat” written on them. “Those are always the ones I find most exciting and scary. It wasn’t like I said to myself, ‘Hey, let’s find a character from a video game.'”

    The actress likes to keep her audience guessing, and her upcoming film schedule is varied, including Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV miniseries “Disclaimer” (premieres October 11). She will next be seen in films by Guy Maddin (“Rumours”) and Steven Soderbergh (“Black Bag”), and there are “a lot of girls” she’d still like to work with: Carrie Coon, Lily Gladstone and Sandra Hüller are among them.

    Blanchett is flattered by her fans’ continued enthusiasm for the 2015 lesbian romance “Carol,” which has become an unexpected Christmas classic for many cinephiles (“Carol and Elf,” jokes Blanchett.)

    And she is pleased that young people are discovering the 1999 European thriller “The Talented Mr. Ripley” after the success of “Saltburn” last year.

    “‘Ripley’ simply wouldn’t get made today, even if the great Anthony Minghella was here,” she says. Getting that kind of financing for an R-rated drama is almost unthinkable these days: “He would have to fight so hard to actually shoot in those places.”

    She is always surprised when fans ask her about 2007’s Diary of a Scandal, a saucy, school-based trash film starring Judi Dench in the role of an obsessed colleague.

    “I don’t think I realised how many people had seen it,” says Blanchett. “It’s really rewarding when someone comes up to you who didn’t see your film in the cinema the first time, but they have a screen at home that’s not tuned to sports and they’ve made the effort to watch something you made 10 or 15 years ago. That means it’s had a longer shelf life.”

    “People say, ‘Oh, that was a flop,’ or ‘That was a hit.’ But sometimes the films we hold up as the best of all time weren’t a success financially or with audiences, and yet they’ve become classics,” she says, pausing and laughing as she returns to the film she’s promoting.

    “I’m not saying Borderlands is a classic! It’s fun, fun, fun, but it’s not Citizen Kane!”

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    Madoc Meredith
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