Photo: David Fisher/Shutterstock
Cate Blanchetthas come a long way since her firstCannes Film Festival.
The actress is at the 2023 edition of the prestigious festival in France for her movieThe New Boy.
In an interview with PEOPLE Friday, Blanchett recalled being the new girl when she attended her first Cannes back in 1999 when she was 30. At the time, she was rolling out the comedyAn Ideal Husbandwith costars Rupert Everett andJulianne Moore(who is also at this year’s festival for the filmMay December).
“The first time I came to Cannes I was covered in bruises because I just came into the market with a little tiny comedy in the marketplace and as a ‘nobody.’ So I was completely elbowed out of the way,” jokes Blanchett, 54.
“Then the next time I came with a film, I’m not quite sure why it did, but it opened the festival. And then I had people pushing other people out of the way and was walking down the carpet arm in arm with some movie star,” she recalls. “So it holds both those experiences, and you don’t forget the first experience.”
Cate Blanchett, Rupert Everett and Julianne Moore at Cannes Film Festival in May 1999.CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images
New Boydirector Warwick Thornton, who won the Caméra d’Or in 2009 forSamson and Delilah, says the festival “completely freaked me out and scared the hell out of me” the first time he attended.
“It’s not hysterics, but I’ve never seen that kind of passion for cinema in my life,” says Thornton. “… It just completely scared the hell out of me the first time I came with the film. But winning the Caméra d’Or completely empowered me to keep moving forward and believe.”
“You’re always self-doubting — it’s just the trait of being a bloody annoying human,” the director adds. “But the empowerment that I got to believe that actually what I am doing, the stories that I’m telling, there’s a world out there that wants to see those movies as well. You think you’re insular and you think you’re just a gentle little petal. But having a film in a film festival like this makes you bloom incredibly. It’s so empowering.”
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Cate Blanchett and director Warwick Thornton.Mike Coppola/Getty
Blanchett, who served as jury president at Cannes in 2018, says bringing an export from Australia to a major festival in France reaffirms that cinema has no borders.
The Cannes Film Festival runs through May 27.
source: people.com
