Cate Blanchett, 55, makes surprise retirement admission as Oscar winner addresses giving up on-screen career
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett has declared she is “serious about giving up acting” despite her acclaimed 35-year career.
The 55-year-old Australian star made the surprising announcement in an interview with Radio Times ahead of her first radio drama appearance.
Blanchett, who recently starred in the spy thriller Black Bag, has expressed a desire to pursue other interests beyond the entertainment industry.
The two-time Academy Award winner has been a fixture in Hollywood for over three decades.
“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting,” Blanchett told Radio Times.
The acclaimed actress insisted she had “a lot of things I want to do with my life.”
This is not the first time she has considered stepping away from the spotlight. In a 2023 Vanity Fair interview, she revealed that thoughts of quitting occur “on a daily or weekly basis.”
“It’s a love affair, isn’t it? So you do fall in and out of love with it, and you have to be seduced back into it,” she explained.
Blanchett also spoke candidly about her discomfort with celebrity status.
“When you go on a talk show, or even here now, and then you see soundbites of things you’ve said, pulled out and italicised, they sound really loud. I’m not that person,” she said.
The actress added: “I make more sense in motion – it’s been a long time to remotely get comfortable with the idea of being photographed.
“I’ve always felt like I’m on the periphery of things, so I’m always surprised when I belong anywhere.”
She continued: “I’ve spent a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable.”
Despite her retirement talk, Blanchett is set to feature in her first radio drama on BBC Radio 4 this Saturday.
The 90-minute monologue titled The Fever will see her play an unnamed traveller who falls ill in a foreign country during civil war.
Explaining her interest in radio, Blanchett said: “I’m obsessed with the psychological space that is the interior of people’s cars.”
Her recent film Black Bag, a spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Michael Fassbender, has been critically acclaimed as “one of the most acclaimed films of her career.”
Blanchett rose to fame with her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998), which brought her international recognition. She has won two Oscars – best supporting actress for The Aviator (2005) and best actress for Blue Jasmine (2013).
Her filmography has grossed over £1 billion at the box office.