Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discus her critically acclaimed new film TÁR. She tells Apple Music about experiencing major imposter syndrome depicting conductor and composter Lydia Tár in the film, the power of music, the joy and privilege of being a working actor, what guides her creative choices, and much more.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About the Power of Music…
It is miraculous I think… and that’s the thing. We talk about miracles as coming from other places but... I mean, music is connected to another realm I think. And you know, that’s why there’s nothing that beats the live experience. There is something miraculous about it. When someone makes a note and puts another note beside it… and you know the human voice… unaccompanied human voices melding. Throat singers! Coulda, shoulda, woulda… if only I could have been a throat singer. I used to listen to music all the time, speaking of dancing. And we had two kids, now we have four, whether we... there used to be music every morning, we'd wake up at 6:00 AM and just put something random on. And all of us would dance around the house. And then of course as they get older, they have to go to a thing called school. And then you have to do a thing called a job.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About Her Love of a Well Produced Album…
I've really noticed in the last few years, maybe it's because I've been around for a while, but the lack of the creative producer. I now really, really appreciate a really well produced album. And it's what you do, is you juxtapose things. Because often people might like a particular track, but when you juxtapose it straight away with another sound you listen to the next song incredibly differently.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About Exploring Foreign Territory While Depicting Lydia Tár...
I see it as an escape or an expanse of that which I know. And when you're working on a film like Tar, there was just so much I didn't know. And so I feel like it's a departure. My favorite thing in the entire universe is when you watch a piece of dance and the dancer lifts off into the air and you don't know whether they're ascending or descending. There's this moment of suspension and sometimes you feel that. And that's what I crave is those moments where you lift off with a bunch of actors with great writing and in this case with great music. And it transports you and then hopefully transports the audience.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About Her Preparation For The Role…
Look, the conductors that I spoke to and watch a myriad of documentaries and listen to lots of recordings. But when they talk about their work, they do speak about that thing, having to, will they be able to rise to the great music that they're attempting to channel through themselves to the orchestra, back out to the audience. So I think all great musicians must feel that. But I think what you learn to do is shift the energy of that terror into a productive way. But the problem is, I think where the character is tragic in a way, I think is that she's at a point where she's so profoundly estranged from herself and from her gift. And she started to think, which I think a lot of, you would know this, a lot of recording artists at a certain point in their career, they get really obsessed with legacy.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About Receiving Praise and Reverence, and the Joy and Privilege of Being a Working Actor…
For everybody who might revere you, there’s many people who revile you. I think you have to take the good with the bad — it’s hard to know what to do with praise. When I came out of drama school all those years ago, I don’t think anyone really knew what to do with me. I didn’t fit into a box. I certainly didn’t think I had a film career. That wasn’t on my horizon. So, I sort of had to seize any opportunity that came my way or make an opportunity out of something that looked like a piece of trash to someone else… I don’t know... I just had to look around for things. Also, I didn’t have any place in particular I wanted to get. They always ask you when you leave high school “what do you want to do with you life?” — I went “I want to travel with my work”. That is the joy and privilege of being a working actor, is that you do get to inhabit lots of different identities and so it’s really taught me that my sense of identity, who I am, or how people perceive me — it’s a fluid thing. So it’s not something that I’ve ever spent a lot of time dwelling on. I’m hoping it doesn’t sort of calcify too quickly — I find it can be limiting…you know, I’d rather think about other people’s experiences.
Cate Blanchett Tells Apple Music About What Guides Her Creative Choices...
I find it very hard to say “no" and maybe I should get better at it. I say “no" in a lot of ways, but “no” when someone throws the gauntlet down creatively. Sometimes it’s... you know, you can help something get made. Something that if you’re a small part of than that story can be told. Sometimes it’s that. If you have a kind of a platform or access to something that you can facilitate something. And sometimes it’s… I read something or I have a conversation with someone and I want to be part of that ongoing conversation. It’s the process in the end. The process itself, it doesn’t always have to be enjoyable… but stimulating. And I think the thing has a chance to be something. Sometimes it's just to have fun to be honest. The decision is already made before I’ve made it consciously I think. And sometimes it’s a reaction to something you’ve done before. You feel like “ugh I’ve been exercising that muscle and this arm’s beginning to atrophy” and then something comes and you think “oh, I can learn to use my fingers again.”
