Vanishing Act

When Cate Blanchett walks in,no one so much as looks up from their conversation. Then again,despite her singular beauty,she’s simply not the kind of actress who begs to be stared at. She’s a dignified,pre-red-carpet star caught in a celebrity-tweeting culture,with the result that she’s learned how to promote her role of the moment—in this instance,of a ruthless C.I.A. agent in the thriller Hanna directed by Joe Wright —without seeming to be promoting anything,least of all herself. She says she took Hanna on “because it was the best first 20 pages of any script I’d read—brutal,terrify”

She is whippet thin. Her face is bare of makeup except for perhaps a smidgen of mascara,and she wears no jewellery save for a striking onyx and gold ring. Her nails are unmanicured,which on her looks like the last word in efficient chic and her skin,is the most divalike thing about her: luminous and poreless and the colour of a pale peach. She wears clothes with great ease and seems to have an instinctive grasp of what looks good on her. Yet she never comes across as the sort of woman who spends the better part of an afternoon touring the shops for the latest in designer jeans. One might wonder,whether she has the time,given that she is the co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company with her husband,Andrew Upton,as well as the very hands-on mother of three sons,Dashiell,Roman and Ignatius,who range in age from 9 to 2. “They’re a little pack. They keep me connected,” she says.

She does admit to liking clothes—“I love dressing up,” she says. The stylist Elizabeth Stewart,who has worked with Cate for a number of years,considers her a natural in this area. “She is extremely knowledgeable about fashion and understands it in the way a fashion editor would,” Stewart says.

Talking of other things like the importance of timing,especially when it comes to romance,“I think we collided with each other,” she says referring to her husband,“at what turned out to be the perfect time. We knew each other socially and didn’t get on,we played poker one night and don’t know how but we ended up kissing,he asked me to marry him about three weeks later and we got together in the same spirit. Maybe I’ve got a lack of consequence,” she adds,“a healthy lack of consequence.” Perhaps this effect of seeming open despite being so contained is yet another testament to her acting skill,her ability to slip under the skin of such a range of characters—including the Cate Blanchett who is accessible. When asked what fame means to her,she says,“I’m constantly humbled. Just at the moment when you think,I’ll call and get a table at this restaurant,they’re always like,‘Who?’ So,whenever you try and pull that out,it never works. People are always saying they loved me in Titanic. Daphne Merkin