Cate Blanchett is still 'surprised' if someone taps her on shoulder at supermarket
Cate Blanchett has insisted she is still "surprised" when people recognise her in public and tap her on the shoulder at the supermarket.
The 53-year-old actress – who is nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role in the film Tar – said she is not "bothered" by her global fame.
When asked by The Guardian how she deals with the attention her career brings, she replied: "I don’t get bothered by it.
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"There is so much to do in the world, and I have learned over the years to just focus on the task at hand, so if someone in the supermarket taps me on the shoulder, I'm always surprised by it.
"And there are a couple of films I’ve been privileged to be part of that have affected people, Carol being one of them, and I'm very always very moved by the responses."
However, Blanchett – who won her first Oscar as best supporting actress for The Aviator in 2005, before picking up best actress in 2014 for Blue Jasmine - conceded that her high-profile roles have come with one downside.
She said: "I can get uncomfortable perhaps when there’s a conflation between who I am – whoever the f*** that is – and the characters I’ve played."
Part of her success, Blanchett suggested, is that she had always been happy to not play the leading lady in a film.
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She said: "I took little parts where I could keep experimenting, parts other people didn't want to do.
"People would say, 'You have got to stop playing small roles.' And I'd say, ‘Well, why?’ I was just interested in the experimentation of it and not building a career. I didn’t know what that was. I still don't."
The mother-of-four – who is married to playwright Andrew Upton – admitted that she is "always wanting to stop acting, to just step away", however the success of her latest film has triggered a change of heart.
She said: "But this has made me think, it's not that I want to stop, I just want to do less. It's just very hard to say no to a good idea.”
Watch: Oscar nominations 2023 – best actress
