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Recently Released In Theaters Reviews
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 Cate Blanchett
Interview By: Benjamin Lee In a time when most actresses are known for what they’re wearing or, more often that not, what they’re not wearing, it’s rare to encounter an actress who is intently focused on one thing and one thing only – her acting. Okay so you may find the odd facially impaired actress who is all about the craft but Cate Blanchett manages to combine both breathtaking beauty and an amazing acting talent. This year we’ve already seen her as a junkie in Little Fish, a wounded tourist in Babel and a prostitute in The Good German but it’s her turn in the psychological drama Notes on a Scandal that’s currently filling her mantelpiece with yet more gold shiny ornaments. Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, a schoolteacher who embarks on an affair with a 15-year-old student while also developing a dangerous friendship with her co-worker, played by Judi Dench. It’s a relentlessly dark film that never shies away from the immorality of Blanchett’s ultimate paedophilia. As hard as it may be to empathize with, Blanchett found it important never to judge Sheba. ‘I think it’s absolutely vital to not invest your own morality in the portrait you’re painting of somebody’ she believes, ‘You’re not playing for sympathy nor are you laying the heavy hand of judgement on the character. I was surprised at the depth of my own moral repugnance for what she’d done but it was really important that I try to understand it from her perspective.’ It’s a tough role to play and a hard decision to get past as an actor, why would someone want to have sex with a schoolchild? ‘At the end of the day I had to stop answering these questions as an actor’ she admits, ‘I had to allow Sheba in all her glorious flawed complexity to exist because these are the conversations that you want the audience to have. You don’t want me to reduce the subject matter from the get-go because it’s too complicated.’ It’s a topic matter that’s not too far away from the newspaper headlines we’ve seen over the past year. Blanchett reveals that before production began, she did take a look at real-life teachers who’ve fallen foul of their unhealthy desires. ‘Before embarking on this I’d see headlines in the news and I don’t want to be a spectator’ she states, ‘I tend to think those poor people because on all sides there is irreparable damage done. Let them sort it out themselves. There’s such a media circus surrounding it because it’s so salacious. But from a dramatic point of view you have a field day with the fall-out from actions like that. So I did, in relation to the film, go on the net and see the damaging exchanges that have gone on between students and teachers.’ Blanchett’s other relationship in the movie is shared with her co-worker Barbara, played ferociously by Judi Dench. It’s an equally disturbing connection as Barbara becomes increasingly ... |
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