She’s been
Kate Hepburn and Queen Elizabeth and Galadriel. In
I’m Not There, the great Cate Blanchett
steps across the gender divide to play Bob Dylan --
and reminds us that however we try to catch her,
she’ll always be a step ahead.
Calling Cate
Blanchett the coolest straight woman of 2007 is an
understatement. “She’s just so cool she calls
‘straight’ completely into
question,” he laughs. “You can quote me on
that.”
Haynes caught the
full force of Blanchett’s mojo as she prepared to
play a character modeled on Bob Dylan in
Haynes’s new movie I’m Not There.
“I knew in my gut physically that it was going
to be startling and effective,” says Haynes from his
home in Portland, Ore. “I knew she would
actually look like Dylan. But it’s not until
you stand opposite her in complete costume. The first time
she put it all on, I went to see her in her trailer
and we both just sat there staring at each
other.”
We can relate.
Cate Blanchett takes our breath away. She defies the
categories by which we measure smaller stars. She’s
brilliant enough to take on Queen Elizabeth I and Bob
Dylan in a single moviegoing season. She’s
mysterious enough to make us believe her in both roles. What
can we say? She’s cool.
When I meet her,
Blanchett is both pleased and amused to receive The
Advocate’s recognition. “I heard I was
going to be the coolest straight person. How
kind!” she says. “There’s a lot of
us to choose from.”
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1