The director who compared Cate Blanchett to a foul-mouthed 12-year-old boy
Cate Blanchett is one of the best actors around. With a stellar career filled with rave-worthy performances from renowned composers to majestic elves, Blanchett resonates gravitas whenever she is on screen. This is why it’s somewhat perplexing to hear her compared to a potty-mouthed child by an acclaimed film director on the level of Guillermo del Toro. No, scratch that. To be compared such a thing by the actual Guillermo del Toro.
Now, Blanchett is Australian, who as a nation do have something of a bad rep for some of their more colourful choices of language and have produced a few notorious hot heads, but del Toro is well known for his sense of humour and takes great delight in seeing actors surprise him. This is precisely what happened when Blanchet worked with the legendary director on his passion project, the stop-motion adaptation Pinocchio.
In the film, Blanchett plays Spazzaturra, a performing monkey with some serious attitude, which the director found his actor wasn’t lacking in spades once they got to work. Blanchett recalled in an interview that she was delighted by the director’s comment, divulging that in an email, del Toro had elaborated further that: “Cate has a tremendous sense of humour and can be the most thoughtful friend and collaborator,” says the director via email.
Adding: “She can unleash full force into wild energy. She said to me that Spazzatura was her spirit animal. I believe it”.
Actors revelling in the ability to play against their typecasting is nothing new. Blanchett is renowned for playing complex characters, but the chance to go in a different direction with the role was exactly what she was looking for. “We all have those conversations where people go: I know who you are. You’re this. And you immediately go: am I? Or, I’m not all that. It makes you want to stretch out in another direction.”
Del Toro had previously missed the chance to work with Blanchett after stepping down from directing The Hobbit, but the pair had previously worked together on Nightmare Alley. Blanchett rather candidly asked del Toro for a role in Pinocchio, as the director himself revealed in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the film. After being told the only part left open was the role of Spazzaturra, Blanchet admitted, “And I went, ‘I would do anything. I would play a pencil in a movie for you.”
Talk about devotion. Whilst we were quite taken with Blanchett’s performance as a monkey, what we really would have wanted to see, is the pair working together on The Hobbit. Unfortunately, despite being Peter Jackson’s first choice for the project, del Toro left, meaning we never got to fully experience his version of Middle Earth. While plenty of the director’s artistic efforts and designs made their way into the final film, seeing how del Toro’s taken on Galadriel with Blanchett in the role will always feel like a missed opportunity.
