Cate Blanchett on 'The Aviator'

She tells Christopher Hemblade what it's like to play a screen legend and talks up Martin Scorsese's Oscar chances.

Dec  7 2004

Cate Blanchett has played everything from war hero ('Charlotte Gray') to journalist ('Veronica Guerin') to Elf Queen (the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy) to real Queen ('Elizabeth').

Now though, the Australian actress is facing one of her most difficult acting challenges yet, playing screen legend Katherine Hepburn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio's Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator'.

A big-budget biopic directed by Martin Scorsese, the film focuses on Hughes early, flight-obsessed years, and while DiCaprio excels in the lead, Blanchett's spellbinding portrayal of Hepburn is also being talked up as one of the finest of the year.

The quality of that performance is hardly surprisng when you consider the amount of research Blanchett did having accepted the roler. 'Firstly I scoured all her films,' she told Time Out from her Sydney home. 'Scorsese has an encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema and part of the joy was rediscovering Hepburn and Cary Grant on the big screen at his place, analysing performances which I’d only ever seen on the small screen.'

Her research extended to more than just watching classic films however: 'I read everything written about her. Lauren Bacall was generous with her memories and it was beguiling to be hearing about a friendship between two goddesses.'

Yet while there was serious pressure on Blanchett to do justice to one of the silver screen's best loved stars, the actress says she was far from intimidated by the prospect of playing Hepburn: 'She is beyond legendary as far as I was concerned, but sometimes fear is galvanising. I knew I had a lot of work to do. To move beyond mimicry and cabaret impersonations and tap into a spirit and create a character – and a full-blooded one – that was the challenge.'

And that challenge is one that Blanchett has risen to admirably, with her performance already garnering much pre-Oscar hype. When it comes to awards however, Blanchett seems only concerned with Scorsese's chances of carrying one of the wee gold men. 'I'd love for Marty to finally win' she says of the criminally overlooked director. 'He's an institution and a living, breathing legend.'

To read more of Christopher Hemblade's interview with Cate Blanchett, and for a ten-page special on 'The Aviator', check out the current issue of Time Out London, December 8-15. Issue No. 1790.