From the Archive: Cate Blanchett on growing her own food, multiculturalism, and a disastrous Christmas dinner

Ruth Rogers (0:04)

People always ask me who my dream guest would be on Ruthie's Table 4

Cate Blanchett has always been top of that list, an actor, director, and a vocal activist for values and ideas close to my heart.

A few weeks ago, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach took me to see Cate in Thomas Ostermeier's radical new version of The Seagull at the Barbican Theatre after a stunning performance. We all went for a small supper next door, talking about Chekhov, her role in Tar, and the Serpentine party that she's co-hosting this summer, and as always, family. Cate lives with purpose in the countryside in East Sussex, keeping bees, growing vegetables in her garden, cooking and eating seasonally. Here we are at the River Cafe on the beautiful first day of summer. The sun is shining, the chefs are cooking, and the garden is flowering. Cate and I are going to talk about our shared love of food, artists, children, and a lot more. A dream come true indeed.

Cate Blanchett (1:09)

Oh, I'm glad I got out of bed this morning. I'm glad you did too. You're right, a little piece of sunshine has just come onto the table.

Ruth Rogers (1:18)

It's coming through. That was such an incredible night. How do you feel post-Seagull?

What does it feel like? You did it for how many weeks?

Cate Blanchett (1:26)

It was so short. We were at the Barbican, so it was six weeks.

I've known Thomas Ostermeier for years and years and years. He's running the Shower Booner and my husband and I are running the Sydney Theatre Company, so our paths continually crisscrossed. But we never actually worked together. I think the thing, maybe it's a little bit like a dinner party. When you do check off, it's all about the ensemble and the alchemy that happens or doesn't between the actors. I've always done check off with a loose ensemble of actors, whereas Thomas was assembling all of us. A few people had worked together before. I'd worked with Tom Burke on Soda Burke's Black Bag, relatively recently before the production started. But a lot of it didn't know one another, and he was able to bring us all together, all from totally wildly different approaches.

The thing I miss most is the people. I love them all so much.

Ruth Rogers (2:21)

People here, like my family, we work together, we go out, we celebrate, or sometimes we also just work. But it's a very strong attachment when you're working together and creating something. Here it's every day. In a way, they're parallels. The curtain goes up at 12.30, and the curtain goes up with you at 7.30, don't you think? There's anticipation, you're very dependent on each other.

Cate Blanchett (2:50)

Also, I think you're part of something that, and this is what maybe the patrons don't realize, what an audience doesn't realize, is that whatever happens in the kitchen will be totally influenced by the people who come through your front door. So the evening is a thing, you know what's on the menu, but you don't know how it's going to unfold. You don't know what people are going to order, and so it's fresh every time.

Being quite shy, I don't know if you are, but you get to know people by doing something together.

Ruth Rogers (3:23)

Collaborating, being together. When we see actors on the stage singing or the incredible gift that is given to us as an audience to be able to have that, and Britain has always been known for that.

Cate Blanchett (3:37)

Exactly.

Ruth Rogers (3:38)

Do you feel that this is something that is threatened now, that the priority of culture in this country is being lessened? There was a time when there was money for the arts. There was money for building a theater. I know that you are an activist. I know that you're engaged in political life. What are you feeling about right now in terms of-

Cate Blanchett (4:00)

I mean, people talk about activism that it's political, but I think it's engaging in things that have been politicized. It always is strange to me when we talk about the arts, this word elite is used.

And if you think about an elite sportsperson, that term means that they have spent many, many years perfecting their ability, that they are at the top of their game. And that when we talk about the arts, yes, they are elite in the sense that those people who put those shows on are exceptional at what they do. It's not for an elite. I think the elite these days are the people who don't pay tax. And if they did pay tax, then all of these wonderful offerings, cultural offerings, the Churchill said, what are we fighting for if we're not fighting for culture and the access to it, is that then they would be more accessible to people. And so there's this, I think it's a linguistic language division that's often created between people and culture.