Blanchett Rules Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Published October 10, 2007 in Movie Interviews

By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures.

Cate Blanchett hasn't done many sequels. Lord of the Rings was more like doing one epic film all at once, and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a new role to her. Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the sequel to her Oscar-nominated, starmaking performance in Elizabeth.

Blanchett Talks Elizabeth: The Golden Age

"I think what convinced me was time, really," said Blanchett. [Director] Shekhar [Kapur], the minute we finished the first one, was talking about not only my playing Elizabeth again, but hundreds of other ideas. And we've remained friends and have talked about various projects. I found that the notion of the love triangle, the very structure of the narrative, was quite different. I had always said that if they did another one, that Elizabeth shouldn't be the central character, and because the structure of the romance, because it's an unabashedly romantic film, I think was cut different, and so it didn't feel like treading the same ground."

Once she slipped into the corsets, wigs and face paint, Elizabeth returned. "It was quite organic. No matter how much research you do, you're telling the particular story that the script and the director prescribe. And I think the great thing about Shekhar and I working together is that I'm fascinated by history, and he's utterly disinterested. So I think we temper one another really well. You have to say she's starting off at a point where we kind of left her in the last film, except she was at a point of utter rigidity in the end of the last film. So how does one exist within that rigid place? We had to sort of open that up a little bit but it felt strange. It was like there was an echo in the room, but yet it felt very fresh. It's a much more internal film, I think, an interior film, despite the kind of epic backdrop. So it was a bit like a homecoming."

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Since the throne does not lend itself to open expression of emotion, Blanchett continues to track Elizabeth's growth through subtle shifts of her own face. "I think it's tricky but vital, as an actor working in film, that you have a sense of the third eye, in that you can be aware of what you're projecting, but not in a self-conscious way. So I think if you're internally engaged with the set of feelings and emotions, and also the actions that you're trying to play on the other actor, because it always has to be active, then that will externally take care of itself. I mean, I hope I wasn't mugging too much but I didn't think about that on the day very much. I mean, you think about, obviously, when you're getting into hair and make-up, it is a form of masking up. Even when you're in your Elizabethan warpaint, you don't want that mask to be opaque. It has to be transparent. So hopefully there was a transparency to it."

Blanchett continues to play legendary figures. Her Elizabeth I is not likely to be the last portrayal of this ruler either. "There's a long and glorious legacy of actresses who have played Elizabeth I, from Flora Robson and Bette Davis and Glenda Jackson, Helen Mirren, Anne-Marie Duff. I mean, she's constantly reinvented. One of my favorite plays is a short play, Mary Stuart, about a fictitious meeting between Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. She's ripe for reinvention because she's such an enigma. And also, if you think about the Elizabethan age, when the English culture as we know it was crystalized, it's a fascinating period of history. So I think there'll be many more Elizabeths long after this film, because I think she's a fantastic point on which to leap off for a story."

Elizabeth: The Golden Age opens to theaters on October 12th.

For the trailer, stills and more movie info, go to the Elizabeth: The Golden Age Movie Page.

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Compiled By (Sources)

Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Universal Pictures.
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