Cate Blanchett Life and Career: Cate Blanchett’s first acting gig came about while holidaying in Egypt | Explainer

Cate Blanchett has revealed she is “serious about giving up acting” because there are “a lot of things I want to do with my life” in a new interview with the UK’s Radio Times. 

She didn’t reveal what those other things are, and with several projects still on the horizon – including her first major BBC Radio drama The Fever and the movie Alpha Gang, which she will star in and produce currently in production – it seems there is still some time before she closes the lid on her acting career. 

But if she were to quit, the Aussie icon would be wrapping up more than three decades of work on the stage and screen that can all be traced back to an unexpected experience while on holiday in Egypt.

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After one year of studying economics and fine arts, a 21-year-old Blanchett decided to go travelling. 

Soon, she found herself in Egypt, where she met a casting director who was recruiting extras for a local movie called Kaboria. Eager for a bit of extra cash to fund her travels, she took it on.

“They were going to pay two Egyptian pounds that was going to pay my rent for the week so I said, ‘Sure’,” Blanchett told the Herald Scotland of the experience in 2013.

Although, according to the publication she found it both “boring” and “embarrassing”. 

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In another interview with the BBC’s Husam Sam Asi, she joked she had been disappointed by the experience as she missed out on the falafel they had promised.

“I was travelling in Egypt and I didn’t have any money and I was an extra in an Egyptian film, but they promised falafel and they didn’t deliver and so I left,” she said. 

That job in Egypt became Blanchett’s first acting credit.

The Oscar-winning actor is credited in the film on IMDB as a “blonde cheerleader” and only features briefly in the film during a dancing scene.

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After her travels and her stint on the Egyptian movie, Blanchett returned to Australia and began studying at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). 

She was in the same cohort as Australian actor Essie Davis and her fellow alumni include the likes of Toni Collette, Sarah Snook and Hugo Weaving.

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After graduating from NIDA, Blanchett went on to build her now widely-celebrated career. 

She began on the stage with several acclaimed theatre performances. Her first stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1992 play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company. 

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Her first onscreen appearance (aside from her extra role on Kaboria) was in the 1994 miniseries Heartland and she made her feature film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse in the 1997 film Paradise Road, which also starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. 

It was her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in the period drama Elizabeth that saw Blanchett reach international fame and earned her her first Academy Award nomination. 

Since then, Blanchett’s film career went from strength to strength. She starred as elf leader Galadriel in all three hugely successful Lord of the Rings films and later returned to the role for The Hobbit prequels. 

She’s also known for her roles in the films The Aviator (2004), Blue Jasmine (2013), Notes on a Scandal (2006), I’m Not There (2007), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Carol (2015) and Tár. Each of these performances earned Blanchett an Academy Award nomination. 

She won her first Academy Award for Best Supporting actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in the film Aviator and became the first actor in history to win an Oscar for portraying another Academy Award-winning actor. She won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Blue Jasmine. 

She is widely recognised as the greatest actress of her generation and has worked alongside some other high profile names including Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep.

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Off the big screen, Blanchett has also thrown her passion into theatre with several highly-acclaimed stage performances over the years and in 2008, she and her husband Andrew Upton became artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.

She has also taken on the role of producer on several projects including the 2024 Alfonso Cuarón series Disclaimer.

She has also been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2015 and was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador by the organisation. She has been a passionate advocate for refugees and displaced people around the world.

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Outside of all of that, she has also enjoyed a life with her husband and their four kids – three sons and one adoptive daughter. 

In the 25 years since that Egypt trip, Blanchett has earned more than 100 acting credits to her name alongside other projects. So, it’s easy to understand why she might be ready to call it quits soon.

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