Cate Blanchett received the Donostia Award this Saturday at the San Sebastian Festival, where she presented the film Rumors after passing through Cannes. “I would like that in politics we could transform fear into emotion as in cinema,” said the actress during the press conference where she compared the artistic process she followed to get into the shoes of a character as complex and “unpleasant” as the orchestra. conductor who played in Tar (Champ Todd); with the geopolitical dynamics that mark the future of the world.
“I was terrified of the role. It was a roller coaster that I didn’t know how to ride, but I managed to learn how to reverse it,” she admitted of her work that earned her an Oscar nomination for best leading actress in 2023. Blanchett celebrated how “very lucky” she is, having been able to work with “extraordinary” directors who have given her “great opportunities.” “Operating on instinct as if it were gasoline” was the formula he revealed he followed when choosing which projects to accept. “I think that subconsciously, the role that you accept one after the other ends up being an antidote to what you’ve done before,” he reflected.
The performer appreciated the importance of receiving awards in the careers of artists. “When critics or a culture other than your own appreciate your work, it has a deep meaning for me,” he shared. “I never take awards lightly, but they surprise me,” he said. For the actress, theater is her “great love” in large part because of the proximity it allows her to establish with the public. “It allows you to be very connected, whereas in cinema there is usually a lot of distance, especially with streaming, where you can’t even know something as simple as how many people have seen your film,” he criticized.
From Alfonso Cuarón to Todd Haynes and… Almodóvar?
The Australian receives the award on her first visit to San Sebastian, although some of her films have been screened at the competition, such as Babel by Alejandro G. Iñarritu or Veronique Guerin by Joel Schumacher, who competed for the Golden Shell, Blanchett is the second Australian actress to receive the Festival’s highest honor after Hugh Jackman (2013).
Beyond Zinemaldia, Blancett has won four Bafta and four Golden Globes, as well as an honorary César, in a career spanning more than three decades that has spanned auteur and mainstream cinema. He has worked with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Woody Allen, Gillian Armstrong, Taika Waititi, Peter Jackson, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo del Toro, Adam McKay and Todd Field.
Blanchett received the Goya International in 2022 and took advantage of her visit to the country to acknowledge that “Spanish cinema” had had a “huge influence” on her. The same year, it was announced that he would star in the adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s book. Handbook for housekeepers. A film that the director ended up declining because he was not prepared to tackle a project of such magnitude in English.
This was to be his first feature film in that language, in which he ended up working with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door. The film with which he made history last August after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. “Pedro and I talk all the time. I hope that one day we can shoot the film,” said the actress.
