On my recent trip to Hollywood to cover the Cinderella World Premier, I had the amazing opportunity to interview the stars of the movie! This was a huge honor and I’m so excited to share those interviews with you this week.
I was beyond excited to meet and interview Cate Blanchett. She is an amazing actress having received two Academy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and three BAFTA Awards.
Her poise and presence was just what I would expect from such a talented actress. Her friendly and personable personality was a so welcomed as well. There were 25 of us bloggers and she was so gracious with her time and answers to our questions.
One question on my mind is always how the director find the perfect person for each role. One interview question was on how Cate Blanchett got the role of Lady Tremaine / Evil Stepmother in Cinderella. Listen to her answer!
Q : So did you go after this role, or…
Yes, like a rabid dog, and I didn’t get the Cinderella role, though I had so many friends who- they asked me what I was doing in the summer, and I said, oh, I’m, I’m, um, in a live-action version of Cinderella, and there was a big kind of awkward pause. And they didn’t quite know how to ask me, are you a little old to be playing Cinderella? Yeah. A bit Bette Davis, so yes. No, I, well, no, it sort of landed in my lap, actually.
I was very lucky, and when I, um, Sandy Powell and Dante, uh, Ferretti were on board, and they’re, you know, two of the greats, uh, you know, uh, that they’ve created such extraordinary visuals, um, in modern cinema. And, uh, and, and then Ken Branagh came on board who’s so fantastic with actors and with language, so it was kind of a perfect, a perfect storm.
The costumes that Costume Designer Sandy Powell created for the Lady Tremaine were elaborate to fit the arrogant evil stepmother. That had to help Cate get into the character of a Disney villain. One blogger asked:
Q : How much fun was it to play a Disney villain?
Listen to her reply:
There’s a lot of great Disney villains, and a lot of them are women and, um, and they always have, um, fabulous frocks and fabulous hairdos, um, uh, and so it was an enormous amount of fun. You know, the, the wonderful message in the film, of course, um, is to have courage and to be kind. You know, kindness is a super power, and we try to teach our children, you know, you share, you be respectful, you be generous, you be thoughtful, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and to play someone who can’t play someone who can’t do any of those things, um, you know, to have that as your avatar during the day was quite fun.
There were amazing scenes between Cinderella and the Evil Stepmother. Cate had to really get into such an ugly character – it had to be difficult as Cate is such a beautiful woman with such a smooth, calm voice.
Q : There was a notably difficult scene for you that was really hard to shoot?
Listen to her reply:
Um, well, it was all this, you know, obviously, I’m not in the film all the time, so you have- I wanted to sort of try and chart a journey that was, um, you know, from an, an exquisite exterior- the, um, you know, with a sort of affected grace that the stepmother became increasingly brash. And so it was just trying to calibrate- calibrate that. Um, you know, the, the, the costumes were- some were slightly more difficult to maneuver.
All Disney villains have their signature evil laugh and so does Lady Tremaine.
Q : Your laugh in the movie, I found that very iconic. Um, where did you draw the inspiration for that laugh?
Listen to Cate’s response:
Well, I was mucking around with a, a, a friend of mine on set and, um, we were talking about, we were talking what makes people ugly. And, um, and I said, it’s interesting, you can, um, you can go out with somebody and think, oh my gosh, you’re so attractive, and then he or she eats, and you think, oh my god, you’re a pig. Or, or someone is amazing and you think, your politics are reprehensible, or you know, there’s something about them will give them away, and I said- and we were talking about dirty laughs.
What a fun interview that was! We even got a group photo with her!
Cate Blanchett is an incredibly talented woman. You’ll love her as Lady Tremaine in CINDERELLA which opens in theaters March 13, 2015!
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