The fearless Aussie Actress

Aussie actress Cate Blanchett is the first person ever to win an Academy Award for playing another Oscar-winning actress.

She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last year for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.

Iconic

But she admits she nearly refused the role because she was afraid she would not do justice to the role.

“I think when someone asks you to play Hepburn, you just run in the other direction. It's verging on an impossible task, because she is so iconic,'' she said at that time. However, she could not say no to Scorsese. The movie detailed the romance between the tycoon Howard Hughes and the actress and their messy break-up. She later remarked about her role: “….because one's frightened of something is probably the reason to do it….If you don't take the risk, you don't have the adventure of it.''

Majestic dignity

Blanchett's Hollywood career was launched with Shekar Kapur's Elizabeth in 1998. The story about the moulding of the Virgin Queen of history was a complex, demanding role. “Blanchett exudes a majestic dignity as her character matures from a fanciful young woman to the tough, venerated queen,'' exulted one movie reviewer.

Having established her reputation for fearlessness, Blanchett has gone on to take a variety of roles including Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie, and alongside Jude Law and Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley.

Powerful role

Her role as High Elf Queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies furthered her reputation with Tolkien fans.

She is quoted as saying on her brief but powerful role in the trilogy: “I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head.''

Chameleon-like

She is cast in yet another chameleon-like role and is next set to appear as the young Bob Dylan in the musical biopic I'm Not There, scheduled for release next year. Her movie Babel, in which she co-stars with Brad Pitt, is slated for the Dubai International Film Festival. It will be screened at the Mall of the Emirates on December 17.


Profile
Name: Cate Blanchett.
Born: May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Australia.
Career: She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. She also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the movie Elizabeth.
Highlights: Elizabeth (1998), The Talented Mr Ripley (2000), Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003), Bandits (2001), The Aviator (2004), The Good German (2006), Babel (2006).
Personal: She has two children with her husband and playwright Andrew Upton.
Quote: “If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.''