‘You can’t plan success,’ says Cate

In conversation with Cate Blanchett...

Initially you weren’t keen to reprise the role of Elizabeth. What made you change your mind?

Well, you can’t enter the door the same way twice. I thought that I’d already been through that; it was a porthole to something fascinating for me, and I had a wonderful time. But I’m not sentimental in that way. In fact, I don’t chase roles at all. It’s more the project and the entire beast, and once I knew that Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen were in, I was in too. You have to get seduced back each time.

So Shekhar and Geoffrey didn’t have to twist your arm?

No, Shekhar was talking about it for a long time, but I thought, ‘I don’t know. I’ve done it before.’ But once I was convinced, I was 100 per cent sold on it.

You’re shooting the next Indiana Jones movie. Why did you want to make an action film?

Honestly, I’ve never done anything like it, and that seemed a good reason to do it. I’ve always wanted to do something with lots of action in it, and when Steven Spielberg says, ‘Be a part of this’ I couldn’t say ‘No’! I grew up with those films, and they’re part of my cinematic landscape.

You’d once said that you were ‘part wallflower, part extrovert’. Is that true?

Possibly. People always say to me that they thought I was going to be an actor, but really that was the furthest thing from my mind, because I was too shy really. It does take a lot for me to get up in front of people.

Has becoming a mother changed the way you work?

I think I’ve become more economical, because after having kids you don’t have the luxury of time! You don’t seem to be looking for stardom any more...

Does anybody that looks for stardom actually achieve it?

There’s no formula to achieving that. You can’t plan for success. Each step in and of itself is an experience, and thinking any other way is a pretty hollow to way to live your life.

Do you believe in fate; that things happen for a reason?

I suppose destiny is something that is meant to happen, while fate is out of your control. Fate tends to have tragic ends, at least in drama. Certain things have happened; but I call it luck. I don’t think that my life is so important that there’s some higher power guiding it! I don’t have a sense of a higher being.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com