Cate Blanchett’s response to questions about her sexuality is amazing
Cate Blanchett was faced with the question many actors are asked if they play a lesbian, gay or bisexual character.
When actors play LGB characters it appears to be the standard for journalists to ask “have you ever had a same-sex relationship?”
When Blanchett was faced with this question during a promotional interview for her new film Carol, based on the lesbian themed romance novel ‘The Price of Salt’, she decided to turn the question on it’s head.
“Yes. Many times,” she answered.
The world’s media saw this as a starter pistol, and many articles that speculated about her sexuality were written.
However, in an interview with the Guardian she explained exactly what she was doing.
“I also just played Mary Mapes, who’s a journalist. No one asked me how long I’d been to journalism school.” she said.
“If I played someone who has an affair, I think a reporter would probably think twice before asking, ‘Ooh, how many affairs have you had?’ It would be a slightly delicate area.
“But there are no holds barred about asking me whether I’ve had relationships with women. And so I facetiously said, ‘Oh yes, I’ve had many relationships with women’ – because frankly, who hasn’t? Of course I said it in inverted commas. But the inverted commas didn’t make the page.”
She later clarified her answer at a press conference.
Recently Blanchett has called for more diversity in portrayals of gay people on screen.
Carol opens in cinemas on Nov 27.
