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The Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett has said she finds the lack of change following the inception of the #MeToo movement eight years ago “quite distressing”.
In an interview with Porter magazine, Blanchett, 55, reflected on her involvement with the Time’s Up initiative to champion victims of sexual harassment in the wake of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein.
“Everyone talks about the #MeToo movement as if it’s well and truly over,” she said, “and I think, well, it didn’t really ever take root, to be honest.
“People were seeking to dismantle and discredit those voices that were only just beginning to come out from under the floorboards into the light. I find it quite distressing the way that it hasn’t taken root.”
Blanchett is preparing to star in a production of The Seagull at the Barbican in London, and said she had been inspired by co-star Emma Corrin, as well as Back to Black’s Marisa Abela, who she acts opposite in upcoming Steven Soderbergh film Black Bag.
“Their point of view on a scene will obviously be profoundly different to mine, or someone of my generation,” said Blanchett.
“I’m just amazed by, not only their aliveness of their point of view, but also their technical reserves in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined having or possessing when I was their age.”
In 2018, Blanchett was one of many who spoke out about Harvey Weinstein, with whom she had collaborated on films such as The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and The Aviator.
Asked if the producer had ever been inappropriate towards her, Blanchett replied: “With me, yes.”
She added: “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.’”
Weinstein is currently awaiting retrial in New York after a court overturned his 2020 conviction for the sexual assault and rape of two other women. He was also separately convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years.
His lawyers have also appealed against this conviction. Weinstein, who is 72 and has been diagnosed with leukemia, said: “I’m begging the court to move your date so we can have that date instead and proceed with this trial as quickly as we can and get out of this hell hole.”
Blanchett was last Oscar nominated two years ago for the film Tár, and most recently won for Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine in 2014. She also received a best supporting actress Oscar for Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film The Aviator.
