Cate Blanchett Slams Male Directors For Portraying Women In Way That They 'Feel Attracted'

Actress Cate Blanchett called out male directors in Hollywood for portraying female characters in a way that attracts them rather than making them look close to the character. She explained that male directors don't take certain departments, including costume, hair and makeup, seriously, noting that they play a crucial part in developing a character.

"I’ve realized over the years that my relationship with the costume designer and the hair and makeup people is really profound," the 52-year-old actress told the New York Times in an interview published on Thursday.

While the actress explained the importance of these departments, she also noted how male directors are less knowledgeable about the same.

"It’s profound to see what the character looks like, and therefore how a character might move or project," she added. "Those departments — so-called ‘female guilds’ — are often things that male directors profess to know nothing about."

She shared that those male directors always say, "I’ll just leave that bit to you."

The actress went on to recall of one the incidents when she was working with Indian director Shekhar Kapur for the 1998's movie "Elizabeth."

"I played Elizabeth I years ago, and the director, whom l love and respect, was always, 'I just want the hair down, flowing in the wind,'" she said. "I said, have you seen the pictures of Elizabeth I? There weren’t that many like that."

Blanchett shared her views on why male directors often portray women this way in their movies. "But it’s because (some male directors) need to feel attracted. They can’t see that there are other ways — and not even in a sexual way — you can be alluring. You can draw an audience into a character’s experience in many different ways."

On the work front, the actress was last featured in the movie "Don't Look Up," which was released last year. She will be next seen in the movies like "TÁR," "Borderlands," "The New Boy," "A Manual for Cleaning Women" and "Megalopolis."

She will also lend her voice to an animated movie titled "Pinocchio." She will also appear in the TV series "Disclaimer" as Catherine Ravenscroft. The series is under pre-production. The actress will also feature in a miniseries, "Brideshead Revisited."

On the personal front, Blanchett has been married to an Australian playwright named Andrew Upton since 1997. The couple shares four kids together named Dashiell John, 20, Roman Robert, 18, Edith Vivian Patricia, 5, and Ignatius Martin, 14.