Cate Blanchett is the president of this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury. Which I forgot about until just now. That will be fun just from a fashion standpoint – Blanchett either wears absurd, controversial fashion or she wears the absolute best stuff, and nothing in-between. Like, I doubt we’ll see her in Elie Saab, you know? To promote the Cannes Film Festival, Blanchett sat down with Variety to discuss Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Time’s Up, pay equality and a hell of a lot more. It’s a good read, even though Cate doesn’t want to get into too many intimate details about what exactly Weinstein said and did to her – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Whether she’s a feminist: “Yes, absolutely. I never thought otherwise. I’ve never understood the stigma around that because it’s really just a drive toward equality. It’s not about building a matriarchy, although given the endless millennia that we’ve labored under a patriarchy I wouldn’t mind a small slice of matriarchy somewhere.
Whether she’s ever been sexually harassed: “Well, there’s layers and layers to sexual harassment. I’ve been pestered, of course. I don’t know that there are many people who haven’t been.
Whether Harvey Weinstein ever behaved inappropriately towards her: “With me, yes. I think he really primarily preyed, like most predators, on the vulnerable. I mean I got a bad feeling from him. … He would often say to me, ‘We’re not friends.’ [Meaning], I wouldn’t do what he was asking me to do. [When asked to clarify, Blanchett declined to specify.]… I’m interested in those people being prosecuted. We have to set a legal precedent.
Getting predators arrested, prosecuted & sent to jail: “I think it’s really important that people get tried through the judicial system. It’s a really important arm of democracy that we must uphold because it’s under threat from a lot of different quarters.
What she thinks about Dylan Farrow’s claims: “Obviously, Dylan Farrow has been living in a world of pain, and if the case has not been properly tried, then it needs to be reopened and go back into court because that’s a place where those things get solved.
Whether she would work with Weinstein or Allen again: “I don’t think Harvey will be making films with anybody. He was brought on as the producer on many films that I had absolutely no say on. I didn’t have a creative or functional relationship with him. Would I work with Woody again? I had a very productive time working with Woody, and he has written some of the most extraordinary roles for women. But at the time I worked with him I knew absolutely nothing about what was going on, and it came out subsequently. But, far more important than me adding to yet another headline … and finger-pointing is, if that issue has not been dealt with … I am absolutely for it to go back into the courts because there lies the solution.
The last time Cate did a longer interview, it was in March of this year and she was asked a lot about Dylan Farrow – go here to review. There’s definitely a slow evolution on what Cate says about Dylan and Woody, and I keep waiting for Cate to speak as if she’s really sat down and read about the case and, like, watched one of Dylan’s interviews or something. Dylan explains what happened very well, and she explains why there was no prosecution of Woody Allen at the time. Saying now, decades later, that she hopes that Dylan’s case can be re-opened is… not likely. It’s actually just a filler opinion, a cop-out, rather than a substantive statement about whether we should believe women and believe victims and actually work to push predators out of their jobs.
I am interested in hearing more about what Cate has to say about Weinstein though – he really did produce a number of her films. But she seems very touchy about not wanting to be a “headline” about it. Yeah, well… Ashley Judd didn’t want to be a headline about it either. Neither did Gwyneth, or Angelina or Annabella Sciorra or Lupita Nyong’o. But they came out and told their stories so other victims wouldn’t feel alone. But I understand: it’s Cate’s right to not speak about it too. We have to respect that at well. That being said, it sounds like Cate is coming dangerously close to saying that Weinstein never tried to rape her because she was too strong, i.e. not “vulnerable.”
Cover courtesy of Variety, additional photos courtesy of WENN and Getty.
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