New Woman 2001

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I'm terrified of being content.

Funny to think that one of Australia's most gorgeous, got-it-all movie stars still worries like the rest of us. In fact there are lots of reasons why we think the great Cate Blanchett is a NewWoman. Here are 18...

If acting hadn't worked, she could have been an accountant
When it comes to cash, Cate's got her head screwed on. She studied for a degree in economics and fine arts in Melbourne before studying at NIDA in Sydney. 'l rationally decided that my passion was...eeeeconomics!' she screams, 'I was just trying to be responsible. I'd watched my mum struggle and I thought to myself, "I've
got to be financially independent because I don't live in a world that protects and nurtures anybody" .' She changed her mind after a confrontation with a fellow student, 'I never thought of drama school until she suggested it. She told me she didn't like me - but she thought I was good enough to become an actress.' And the rest is history.


She's had her share of heartache

Cate led a happy, middle-class life with her mum, dad, brother and sister in Melbourne. But the family was tom apart when her dad died suddenly of a heart attack at 40. Cate, especially, had problems dealing with it. 'The day dad died, I was playing the piano, and he walked past the window and I waved goodbye. After that, I thought I had to kiss everybody goodbye before I house. It was like I had an obsessive-compulsive-disorder. I'd just be going down the street to get some milk and I'd do it. Because my dad was American, I somehow thought that the CIA had taken him and one day he'd just turn up,' she says. When she realized he wasn't coming back, she felt burdened. 'It wasn't anything my mother did but l felt the need to be a husband as much as a daughter. It made me a bit of a loner.'

And it made her travel the world

At 17, Cate hit the world with a rucksack on her back. 'I didn't know where I was going,' she remembers, 'I just took off alone. You're so fearless at that age. When I think of the things I did I like the back lanes I ended up in at three in the morning. I was going to stay in England, but because I forgot to organize my papers, I was kicked out of the country after a week and ended up in Egypt.'

...and now she hates flying

Ever since she starred in Pushing Tin (with John Cusack), a film about air traffic controllers, Cate shudders at the thought of boarding a plane. 'I never used to mind flying,' she says. 'I'd get on the plane and do a five-second farewell to everyone I cared about, but now I know too much. If the plane tilts a certain way, I think, "Uh-oh, the pilot's wife's been fucking the air traffic controller and he's mad".'

She married the man she knew was 'the one' within weeks
Cate met her husband Andrew, a script editor, when their eyes met across a crowded room. 'He thought I was aloof and l thought he was arrogant,' she says. 'But once he kissed me, that was that. Within two weeks he'd proposed and a few weeks after that we married.' In the Blue Mountains two years ago, in fact. There was no time for a honeymoon - but that didn't matter: 'I was - and am - swept away,' says Cate. 'There a some things in life you can't rationalize and this is one of them. I can't even go into the depth of my adoration for Andrew.'

Trouble is big love means big phone bills
Cate admits it's been hard at times to maintain a normal marriage. 'These early days haven't been easy, ' she says. 'Within months of marrying, I got the part in Elizabeth. lt meant moving to England while Andrew worked in Australia. Three months of long-distance phone calls was painful. We swore it'd never happen again.' since then, Andrew follows Cate wherever she's filming, bringing his work with him. To make things easier, Cate agreed to star in Andrew's short film Bangers about a woman's relationship with her mother in suburban hell. Not exactly an optimistic, saccharine-y look at life. And it certainly couldn't have come out of Hollywood.

which is fine by Cate - not being 'the star' doesn't worry her

Anthony Minghella, director of The Talented Mr. Ripley, describes Cate as a woman with a life and very little attitude. 'She's easy-going, blessedly free of small talk and quick to go home once work's finished,' he says. Nor is Cate one to let the green-eyed monster get the better of her. She took a supporting role in Ripley opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, the lead, to whom she lost an Oscar last year. 'I found a freedom in my anonymity, in not being focused on, in not being at the helm of the ship,' she says. 'I'm just doing my bit.'

Not that she hasn't won her fair share of awards
Even though Gwyneth won an Academy award for best actress in 1998 (for Shakespeare in Love) and Cate didn't (for Elizabeth), she did win the Golden Globe ward and the British Academy Best Actress award for her role in Elizabeth. When they were both up for the golden statue last year for Ripley, Gwynnie said she hoped Cate would win. Cate responded with her cool it: 'I don't think anyone truly hopes anyone else will win. Those scratch marks on her neck? Nothing to do with me.'

She's had really bad hair days

Cate went through all manner of horrible hairdos when playing Elizabeth. 'They shaved an inch off my hairline and these little nubs of hair would come up. They bleached big bands of my hair white and the back red. I had no brows and they bleached my lashes. That look didn't influence fashion a a lot, surprisingly..'

Parties make her nervous.

Cate doesn't mince her words about the LA lifestyle. 'As for living there, which is what people advised me to do after Oscar and Lucinda, I can't think of anything more depressing,' she says. 'Some people are good at networking and making the right friends, but if l tried to schmooze, I'd be dribbling. I'm so bad at it.'

...and so do awards ceremonies

Cate's not into the pressure of big awards bashes.' I was at an awards ceremony a few years ago where there was this ramp up to the stage and I spent the whole night praying I wouldn't win,' she says. 'And I didn't! I was so happy I didn't have to deal with that ramp!'

But she gets a big kick out of anticipation

Everyone's confidence deserts them at some time or another. And Cate knows full well that you can only experience the total joy of success if you've also been on the receiving end of rejection. "lf I had my way," she says, 'if l could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement and disappointment - that would be a perfect state.' Sort of like when you put a new red t-shirt in the wash with a whole lot of white stuff - will everything come out pink, or will you get away with it? And speaking of laundry."

...she washes her own socks

Not one to overdose on glamour and glitz, Cate gets breathless at the prospect of being normal. Of a recent trip to Woolies she says, 'I was so excited at buying light bulbs and things. Andrew and I were looking at the cleaning products and we were almost hyperventilating. It's so nice to get on with things like washing my socks. I'm sorry, but my life is that boring.'

Her mates have normal jobs

Cate chooses to hang out with normal people, instead of Hollywood types. 'My best friend is a social worker, ' she says. 'That's fantastic because you can get too caught up in this world and it's humbling to talk to people whose concerns have nothing to do with constructing a fantasy and everything to do with living in a reality.'

She knows her knickers

Like most girls, Cate has a 'thing' about underwear. 'I am well-placed to reveal a certain fixation Cate has with underwear,' says Anthony Minghella. 'Whenever I approached her during filming, she'd be in a fascinating discourse with her lingerie. In mid-sentence, she'd hoist her skirts up to air herself she would tug and arrange, search inside her blouse.'

She's surprised by her success

Cate would like to have kids, even though the thought of parenthood scares her. 'We're all so busy controlling our lives and it's something you can't control, ' she says. 'I feel sort of the same way about my career: I've never made a conscious decision about my career. I never even thought I'd make films. I feel like one of those horses with a champ bag -so busy eating that you don't notice you've arrived.'

But others aren't so surprised

When Cate made her London stage debut in Plenty last year, director Jonathan Kent said: 'Cate is a contradictory personality. She's gregarious, yet solitary, beset by doubt yet extroverted, witty yet melancholy. If the cliché about Cate is that she is a chameleon, it's because all those things exist within her.'

She's happy...if she doesn't think about it

'I've always been terrified of being content,' she says. 'It seems such a smug place to be stuck in. But, yes, I am happy, in a sense that I'm not frightened of depression or disappointments. That means a lot of things bounce off me today that wouldn't have a few years ago. The less I think about happiness, the happier I am.'

Cate has been filming Lord of the Rings in New Zealand (released next year), and is now working on Outlaws (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid meets romantic comedy) with Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis.

So How Did She Do?
SHE'S UNFAIRLY GORGEOUS, POISED AND SERENE, BUT HOW DID CATE BLANCHETT DO IN THE NEW WOMAN TEST? WE WEIGH UP THE PROS AND CONS. ..

PROS: SHE GETS A BUZZ OUT OF WASHING HER OWN SOCKS. SHE'S GOT A WICKED SENSE OF HUMOUR. HER BEST MATES AREN'T MOVIE STARS. SHE ADMITS SHE'S CRAP AT SCHMOOZING

CONS: ERR... WE COULDN'T THINK OF ANYTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT ONE OF OUR HOTTEST EXPORTS. SO IT'S OFFICIAL - SHE'S A REAL NEW WOMAN. CONGRATULATIONS, CATE - YOUR SHOUT!