Exclusive Interview With Cate Blanchett (Lady Tremaine) #CinderellaEvent

Disclosure – I received an invite to the #CinderellaEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. The opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

Last weekend during my trip to Hollywood to attend the Cinderella World Premiere, we also had the opportunity to interview Cate Blanchett who plays Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother. Although Cate does play an evil role in the film, she is nothing but sweet, charming and funny in person.

We only had a short time with Cate but our group of mom bloggers asked some great questions. During the interview I have to admit that I really LOVED how Cate was so eager to answer the questions and answered each with such enthusiasm.

Below you will find a few of my favorite questions along with Cate’s responses:

Q: So did you go after this role?

Yes, like a rabid dog and I didn’t get the Cinderella role, though I had so many friends who asked me what I was doing in the summer, and I said, oh, I’m in a live-action version of Cinderella, and there was a big kind of awkward pause.  And they didn’t quite know how to ask me, are you a little old to be playing Cinderella?  Yeah.  A bit Bette Davis, so yes.  Well, no, it sort of landed in my lap, actually.

I was very lucky, and when Sandy Powell and Dante Ferretti were on board, and they’re, you know, two of the greats, you know, that they’ve created such extraordinary visuals in modern cinema.  And then Ken Branagh came on board who’s so fantastic with actors and with language, so it was kind of a perfect, a perfect storm.

Q: What’s your favorite scene?

Ooh, well I think the chemistry between Lily and Richard is palpable, and I wept like a baby, completely inappropriately and out of character when they waltzed for the first time.  The music is beautiful, but also it was a really big feat because Lily was cinched in so tightly, and that dress was like an armored tank, and he was in seven hundred layers of wool, and the dance was really athletic, and they acted like a dream.  And the chemistry was palpable, and I just, I wept because it was beautiful to watch.

But I think maybe being the mother of sons, I found it very, very moving, and every time I see it I do cry a lot. I love the scene between Derek Jacobi as the king, and Richard Madden as the prince.  You know, because that’s the wonderful thing about the film, I think is that, you know, we try and shield our, our children from moments of grief and I know it from having lost a parent at the age of ten.

Children are resilient, and they can, in a way, it’s harder, I think, to lose a parent, you know, the age the way that we are.  Well, I mean, I’m might be a thousand years older than you all, but, um, and I, and, and I found that really moving.

I thought, um, for him as a, as a man to be curled up like a young boy, you know, and I’ve had a lot of friends recently lose a parent, and whether you’re eighty or eight and you lose a parent, you- you’re always the child, and so I find that move- that scene very moving.

 How much fun was it to play a Disney villain?

There’s a lot of great Disney villains, and a lot of them are women and they always have, fabulous frocks and fabulous hairdos and so it was an enormous amount of fun.  You know, the wonderful message in the film, of course is to have courage and to be kind.  You know, kindness is a super power, and we try to teach our children, you know, you share, you be respectful, you be generous, you be thoughtful, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and to play someone who can’t play someone who can’t do any of those things, you know, to have that as your avatar during the day was quite fun.

Listen to the Full Exclusive Interview with Cate Blanchett below:

I have to say that I really enjoyed the interview with Cate and wished it could have lasted longer. She was amazing in the film Cinderella and also a joy to be around. I was so excited when she agreed to take a picture with our group of mom bloggers.

CINDERELLA opens in theaters everywhere on March 13th!