Cate Blanchett pictured at the 77th Venice Film Festival. (Image courtesy: AFP)
Strong points
- “I have always considered myself to be an actor,” Cate said.
- “I think a good performance is a good performance,” she said.
- “It doesn’t matter what the sexual orientation of whoever makes them”, she added.
Venice:
Hollywood star Cate Blanchett said on Wednesday that she would rather be called an actor than an actress. The Australian, who heads the jury at the Venice Film Festival, has supported the Berlin Film Festival’s controversial decision last week to remove gender awards and only give out best actor. “I’ve always called myself an actor,” Cate Blanchett said after being asked about the move towards gender-neutral pricing. “I am from the generation where the word actress was almost always used in a pejorative sense. So, I claim the other space,” she told AFP news agency.
Cate Blanchett heads the jury in Venice – once criticized by feminists for the “toxic masculinity” of her selection – in a year when the number of female directors vying for the top prize has quadrupled to eight.
“I think a good performance is a good performance regardless of the sexual orientation of whoever is doing it,” she told reporters.
“The hardest thing as a jury member is judging the work of others. It is the hardest thing, not the (gender) demarcation,” she added.
Venice has been heavily criticized for selecting just one filmmaker to compete for the Golden Lion in 2017 and 2018.
And there was even more fury last year when Roman Polanski – who had been convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 was selected and won the festival’s second prize for his historical drama, An officer and a spy.
– I have ‘permission’ from my husband –
But as the festival approaches – the first major film gathering since the coronavirus hit – Oscar winner Blanchett told Variety the record of eight female directors this year was “a direct response to the positive progress. which have been achieved “.
The 51-year-old has become a major player in gender politics in Hollywood since the #MeToo movement sparked by the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Two years ago she led a red carpet protest for equality by an army of female stars and directors at the rival Cannes film festival, where she was also president of the jury.
the Carol and Elizabeth star has also been a prominent supporter of the Time’s Up and # 50/50 movements for gender parity and against sexual harassment in the industry in the wake of Weinstein’s disgrace.
Experienced French director Claire Denis, who heads the “Horizons” competition in Venice, lent her support to Blanchett.
“Cate and I were supposed to work together once on a project and I wanted her to be the main man in the movie,” she said.
The creator of High life and Good work said the gendered prize limits are clear when you have to “give a prize to someone who has played the role of a male or female and is transgender.”
But some stereotypes are slow to die. Blanchett was asked at one point during the press conference ahead of the festival’s opening gala if she had asked her husband if she could go to Venice, given the risk of a second wave of COVID.
“My husband said I was allowed to leave,” the actor snapped back. “My children not so much.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
