Blanchett in The Good German
Interview: Cate Blanchett on The Good German
“I think the more you do as an actor, the more facility you have to switch on and switch off,” said Blanchett. “So maybe five or six years ago, I think actually when I played Elizabeth for the first time, I called home and mom said, ‘Why are you speaking funny?’ and I didn’t even think that I was. I think your facility becomes greater the more you do and I’ve certainly done a lot.”
Shot in the style of the 1940s Hollywood backlot movies, The Good German brought out a new style of acting for Blanchett too. “In terms of the visual style, it was utterly influential. I was just saying to someone else, if you're asked to perform in this sort of highly theatrical way that has a very different emotional production to the way, or a sense of truth to the way we perceive truthful acting today without the backdrop, the cyclaramas, the kind of built sets, the backlot quality, and also the noir-esque lighting, then I think you would have been in trouble. But all of those elements really supported that performance style.”
It’s an emotional role for Blanchett as the film reveals Lena’s ordeal through Nazi Germany. “She is a survivor, but with enormous costs. I don't think you survive something like that without, there being some psychological, emotional, spiritual cost to yourself and to other people which she would absolutely acknowledge.”
Fortunately, the unique filming style allowed Blanchett to play some of the trauma more subtly and carefully, so as not to completely expose herself during the scene. “There’s a flashback where Lena is raped. If that was done in another film, I think the things that would have been coursing through me would have been very different. The demands would have been different. Whereas it was a half glimpse thing. If I hit the light in the right way, and put my head in the right way, then the emotion comes across in the right way. As opposed to the camera finding me, I had to find the camera. So it’s just a slightly different shift, which at first felt quite technical but then I found it really liberating because it was like the meaning was completed through the camera. The shots underscored the emotion so you then had to really finely calibrate how much to reveal. When I arrived, because it didn’t have a lot of preparation time there. We didn’t have any rehearsal or anything. Steven showed me a lot of cut footage, stuff they had done which was so helpful. As soon as I saw that, I knew the reference points, the things he was referencing but when I saw that, I went, ‘Oh, I get it.’”
The Good German opens to theatres on December
15th.
For the trailers, posters, movie stills and synopsis, go to The
Good German Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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