Cate Blanchett’s bat­tle for the blockbuster

Cate Blanchett’s role in Eli Roth’s video game adap­ta­tion Bor­der­lands may seem like some­thing of an out­lier to fol­low­ers of her work. Her char­ac­ter Lilith, an inter­galac­tic gun­slinger with bright red hair and a men­ac­ing expres­sion, may not be the type of role peo­ple asso­ciate with the two-time Oscar win­ner. One of the most acclaimed actress­es of her gen­er­a­tion, films like Eliz­a­beth, Car­ol and Tár have earned her the rep­u­ta­tion of a pres­tige actress known for com­plex char­ac­ter stud­ies that draw crit­i­cal acclaim.

How­ev­er, there is a trend in her career that tends toward rogu­ish, mis­fit roles, par­tic­u­lar­ly in big-bud­get pro­duc­tions. ​“The crazy asks are usu­al­ly the things I grav­i­tate towards; the things I could nev­er con­ceive of,” Blanchett revealed in an inter­view pro­mot­ing Bor­der­lands. ​“I think there also may have been a lit­tle COVID mad­ness — I was spend­ing a lot of time in the gar­den, using the chain­saw a lit­tle too freely. My hus­band said, ​‘This film could save your life.’” The pull of the obscure is some­thing that has remained con­sis­tent in her fil­mog­ra­phy, for bet­ter and worse.

Where­as pan­dem­ic iso­la­tion inspired her to take on Lilith, one of Blanchett’s most famous Hol­ly­wood roles was inspired by dis­rup­tion. She played Hela, the God­dess of Death, in Tai­ka Waititi’s Thor Rag­narok, the estranged sis­ter of Thor and Loki who returns from impris­on­ment fol­low­ing the death of their father Odin. Hela was the first female vil­lain in the Mar­vel Cin­e­mat­ic Uni­verse, with an entrance that shat­tered the sta­tus quo as she destroyed Thor’s ham­mer Mjol­nir. Waititi’s film was a tonal shift for Thor, mov­ing from brood­ing dra­ma to some­thing more colour­ful and comedic. Blanchett fit in per­fect­ly, mak­ing Hela a grand­stand­ing antag­o­nist with a pierc­ing stare, impos­ing head­dress, and many a mem­o­rable line.

“I’m not a queen or a mon­ster. I’m the God­dess of Death,” she says glee­ful­ly as she chokes Chris Hemsworth’s mighty hero in the film’s finale. It’s this dual­i­ty that makes Hela one of the tru­ly great Mar­vel vil­lains, in that there is a human objec­tive rather than some mys­ti­cal MacGuf­fin, and a relat­able moti­va­tion. She has a case for revenge hav­ing been wronged by their father, even if she choos­es a cal­lous path to achieve it. A mix­ture of dan­ger, camp, and god­ly pres­ence, she made her mark on the world’s biggest franchise.

The same inter­est­ing depth is vis­i­ble in Blanchett’s for­ay into the world of Dis­ney princess­es – Ken­neth Branagh’s live-action remake of Cin­derel­la. The film itself plays it rea­son­ably safe with the fairy­tale, resist­ing the twists in the for­mu­la that had come with films like Frozen two years pre­vi­ous­ly. How­ev­er, Blanchett drew on clas­sic and mod­ern influ­ences to make her char­ac­ter, Lady Tremaine, more than an ​‘Evil Step­moth­er’. The 1950 Dis­ney car­toon por­trayed Tremaine as severe and matron­ly, with her dis­dain for Cin­derel­la com­ing from a place of sheer malev­o­lence. Blanchett’s ver­sion, part­ly inspired by Joan Craw­ford, over­flows with style and grace. She is ini­tial­ly warm toward Ella (Lily James), until her own pain turns her against her step-daughter.

In a scene where Ella finds out that her father – Lady Tremaine’s hus­band – has died, the mes­sen­ger says in her earshot that his last words were for Ella and his first wife. Grief and the knowl­edge that she was nev­er loved as much as her husband’s first fam­i­ly dri­ve her to cru­el­ty. Like Hela, there is some intel­li­gence behind the role that intro­duces more motive, adding style and sub­stance to a char­ac­ter that in the past had been wicked for the sake of it. Even in the most con­ven­tion­al of fairy­tales, Blanchett found some­thing new to work with.

Mov­ing away from capes and glass slip­pers, Blanchett was a key fig­ure in the ensem­ble spin-off Ocean’s 8. Work­ing with a star cast that includ­ed every­one from Sarah Paul­son to Rihan­na, Blanchett dis­tin­guished her char­ac­ter, Lou, from the group. Dressed in an array of fash­ion­able suits, the actor dis­closed that she gave Lou ​“quite a lot of mas­cu­line ener­gy”, infus­ing the right-hand woman of leader Deb­bie Ocean (San­dra Bul­lock) with a casu­al con­fi­dence and play­ful flir­ta­tious­ness. She’s intro­duced sit­ting on top of a crate of alco­hol she’s water­ing down, read­ing a mag­a­zine about motor­bikes, and seems to be able to pro­cure any­thing and every­thing Deb­bie asks for.

Of the group, Lou is the most enig­mat­ic, nev­er reveal­ing her hand and shar­ing a chem­istry with her part­ner that has led to many inter­net fan the­o­ries that the char­ac­ters were an item (some­thing Blanchett has denied). Regard­less of con­text, Lou is an out­law both in occu­pa­tion and spir­it. In a film where the tar­get is The Met Gala, it would have been tempt­ing to make the char­ac­ter as clas­si­cal­ly glam­orous as the actress who plays her. How­ev­er, Lou remains an out­sider, some­one who seems at home both in the shad­ows of crim­i­nal­i­ty and on the red car­pets of Manhattan.

Of course, not every ven­ture into block­buster ter­ri­to­ry is a suc­cess. 2008’s Indi­ana Jones and The King­dom of The Crys­tal Skull was derid­ed by fans, who took issue with the out­landish plot twists and car­toon­ish char­ac­ters, one of whom was Dr Iri­na Spalko, played by Blanchett. A mix­ture of Raiders of The Lost Ark’s Arnold Toht and famous Bond vil­lain Rosa Klebb, her Ukrain­ian accent, severe bob and large per­for­mance were not the worst aspects of the film, but per­haps symp­to­matic of its fail­ings. A psy­chic Sovi­et agent with an obses­sion with the tit­u­lar arte­fact, the lack of sub­tle­ty with­in the sto­ry meant Spalko became car­toon­ish against Blanchett’s bet­ter instincts. After all, is there a cred­i­ble way to fence on top of two jeeps dri­ving through a jungle?

Blanchett will be hop­ing for more suc­cess with Bor­der­lands, but regard­less of the out­come, these roles illus­trate an artist who is will­ing to take risks on the biggest stage. As block­busters become crit­i­cised for becom­ing increas­ing­ly homoge­nous, Cate Blanchett’s name on the poster of the lat­est big-bud­get adven­ture is hope­ful­ly a sign that you’ll be see­ing some­thing at least a lit­tle bit different.