The “electric” 1993 role that changed everything for Cate Blanchett: “Seminal for me”
Cate Blanchett might have made her international breakthrough with roles like Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings or Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth, but the role that changed her life had come a few years before these even hit the world stage.
Fresh out of the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Blanchett was cast in a Sydney Theatre Production of David Mamet’s Oleanna. Despite her age and novice status, she was the perfect choice for the main character, Carol, a young, naive student who confronts her professor on her inability to understand his classes.
Not only was Blanchette lucky enough to be cast in this divisive play that went on to be a critical success at the age of 23, but Australian stage legend Geoffrey Rush was to star opposite her. “I was cast in a production of Oleanna at the Sydney Theatre Company, opposite Geoffrey Rush, which was seminal for me,” she told The Independent, “[It had just] hit the world at that time, making it electric.” It’s not shocking that this is an experience that instantly changed her life.
It might not have catapulted her to fame, but it certainly got her more attention than most fresh graduates expect in their first year. This might not necessarily surprise her fans now, considering her status as one of the most talented actors of her generation, but to come straight out of school and be talented enough to land a role across from an internationally acclaimed actor many years your senior, well, that doesn’t just happen out of luck.
Although Blanchett sees it as just that when it comes to the secrets of her success, “A lot of it’s luck, as one always says who gets to a certain level of success”. However, you definitely cannot blame luck for being the first person to win both the ‘Best Actress Award’ for her performance in Timothy Daly’s Kafka Dances, and the ‘Best Newcomer Award’ for Oleanna at the Sydney Theatre Critics Awards.
If that’s luck, then Blanchett has just continued to fall upwards in her career, moving from critically acclaimed theatre to award-winning movies in just a few years. What is lucky is that Blanchett was involved with both Mamet and Rush during a time not only of their great success, but before either went on to become rather controversial figures.
While Oleanna was dealing with the tricky conversations and dynamics surrounding on-campus allegations of sexual assault early on in the 1990s, Mamet would later go on to abandon his liberal past for a much more conservative one.
Most overtly, he’s endorsed both Donald Trump and the state of Israel, but under the surface, his ‘complex’ films also seem to toe the line (or sometimes step right over it) between complex philosophical questions and tone-deaf devil’s advocate rage bait. As for Rush, he’s dodged his fair share of sexual misconduct allegations.
But that’s besides the point; what matters most is that Blanchett was able to use Oleanna as a springboard for her career and, in the end, become more successful than her dubious male colleagues.
