“I needed somebody of that stature”: the director who compared Cate Blanchett to Godzilla
Plaudits have come easily to Cate Blanchett throughout her distinguished career, but only one director compared her imposing screen presence and formidable acting chops to a skyscraper-sized lizard with atomic fire breath and a penchant for reducing entire cities to smouldering rubble.
Not the most obvious dots to be connected, but neither are they without merit. Already a respected veteran of stage and screen in her native Australia by the mid-1990s, Blanchett wasted almost no time at all in gaining international prominence when the historical biopic Elizabeth was released in 1998.
It was only her fourth feature film appearance, the first movie she’d shot outside of her home country, and her first time being awarded top billing, with the end result being an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’ and wins in the corresponding category at the Baftas and the Golden Globes.
It was an impressive way to introduce herself to a wider audience, and she’s maintained that level of consistency ever since. Nobody in their right mind would deny that Blanchett is comfortably among her generation’s finest talents, and she’s well on her way to being remembered as an all-time great, which is even more remarkable considering she only recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of her first film.
Those two Oscars, four Baftas, a quartet of Golden Globes, and a trio of Screen Actors Guild Awards don’t lie, but even then, Toho’s most famous creation isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, it makes a great deal more sense when the comparison is made by a fellow multi-time Oscar winner who harbours a deep-seated love for all things monstrous that borders on obsession.
As his first port of call and first feature in four years following the ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’-winning success of The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro set his sights on remaking the psychological thriller Nightmare Alley. Bradley Cooper’s hubristic Stanton Carlisle was always going to be the focal point and centrepiece, but he needed a performer right out of the top drawer to serve as the instigator.
Fortunately, he knew exactly where to turn. “I approached her, and I said to Bradley, ‘Look, King Kong, I need to get you your Godzilla,'” he explained to The Playlist. “And I knew that I needed somebody of that stature to, what has been up until then, a guy that has run unopposed for half the movie.”
Enter Blanchett’s Lilith Ritter, the enigmatic psychologist who Carlisle initially thinks he’s gotten the better of. A turbulent romance unfolds between them, but it gradually becomes clear that the former circus performer and mentalist has been played from the start by somebody a great deal more duplicitous than they initially seemed.
For del Toro, pitting two talents of that calibre against each other was his version of watching Godzilla and King Kong lay waste to their surroundings, and he couldn’t think of anyone better to go toe-to-toe with Cooper than Blanchett.
