Cate Blanchett Asks: Why Is The Media So Obsessed With Gay People's Sex Lives?
Cate Blanchett has never had sexual relationships with women, despite apparently stating the opposite in an interview with Variety last week.
The Oscar-winning actress was quoted by Variety film editor Ramin Setoodeh saying she'd had relationships with women "many times," a revelation that made headlines internationally as Blanchett's 'coming out as bisexual.'
In a new interview with the Telegraph, the 46-year-old said she was misquoted and responded to the subsequent media firestorm in the way a passive Internet troll would: "Who cares?"
Said Blanchett:
"From memory, the conversation ran: 'Have you had relationships with women? I said 'Yes, many times, but if you mean have I had sexual relationships with women, the answer is no.'
In 2015 the point should be: who cares? Call me old fashioned, but I thought one's job as an actor was not to present one's own boring, small, microscopic universe but to raise and expand your sense of the universe, to make a psychological and empathic connection to another character's experience so you can play them. So you can present another world to an audience.
My life is of no interest to anyone else. Or maybe it is, I don't know. But I'm certainly not interested in putting my thoughts and opinions up there."
Setoodeh has held that he did not misquote her:
When I asked Cate Blanchett if she'd had lesbian relationships in real life, she said: "Many times." She was accurately quoted. #Cannes2015
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) May 17, 2015
Blanchett's role as a bisexual woman in the Cannes flick Carol sparked the original comments. She said that playing a bisexual woman gave her different perspective when it came to handling the news of her being misquoted recently, namely because she believes "that sexuality is a private affair."
She added: "There are 70 countries around the world where homosexuality is still illegal so it still seems to be an issue. I think the interesting thing about this, and certainly playing a character like Carol, is that sexuality is a private affair."
"I think what often happens these days, if you are homosexual, you have to talk about it constantly; it has to be the only thing you put before your work and any other aspect of your personality."
She's right. Perhaps that's why so many closeted actors choose to remain in the closet?
