‘Not expecting to be welcomed’: Cate Blanchett shares surprising reflections on her career

Superstar Cate Blanchett is one of our great exports and probably the greatest actor of her generation, but it seems she’s still coming to terms with fame.

At 55, the two-time Oscar winner says she’s spent “a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable,” revealing she’s always felt like she was on “the periphery of things.”

Promoting her new BBC Radio 4 series The Fever, Blanchett opened up to Radio Times about the complex relationship she has with her career and public persona.

“I’ve always felt like I’m on the periphery of things, so I’m always surprised when I belong anywhere,” she told the publication.

“I go with curiosity into whatever environment that I’m in, not expecting to be accepted or welcomed.”

Blanchett rose to fame with her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and has gone on to star in blockbusters Lord Of The Rings trilogy and 2018’s Ocean’s 8, while featuring in critically acclaimed roles in theatre and was a co-director of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013, alongside her husband Andrew Upton.

The Australian most recently starred in the spy thriller Black Bag (2025), and took to the stage for another acclaimed turn as Arkadina Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Barbican Theatre.

Despite the acclaim, Blanchett told the publication she was “serious about giving up acting” as there are “lots of things I want to do with my life”.

“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it,” she said.

-with PA.