Cate Blanchett says she is ‘giving up acting’ – again (2025)

Award-winning Australian actor Cate Blanchett has said she is “serious about giving up acting”, and wants to step away from the limelight to focus on other things in her life.

In an interview with British magazine Radio Times, the Melbourne-born star said she felt uncertain about calling herself an actor. “It’s because I’m giving up,” she said.

“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting.” There are, she says, “a lot of things I want to do with my life”.

“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,” Blanchett said. “I’ve spent a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable.”

Blanchett is in the last days of a season of Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Barbican Theatre in which she plays fading yet still imperious actor Arkadina. Perhaps the role has led to some self-reflection, but this isn’t the first time the 55-year-old has teased her exit from the acting scene.

At a Women in Motion event at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, she said, “I’m always trying to get out of acting.

“I’ve been trying to get out of acting my entire professional life.”

Blanchett’s career began on the stage at the Sydney Theatre Company in David Mamet’s Oleanna in 1992. Five years later, she made her film debut in Bruce Beresford’s Paradise Road. Since then, she has worked with a remarkable roll call of directors – Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. She and her husband of 25 years, Andrew Upton, were also the artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013.

Blanchett’s breakthrough role as Elizabeth I in the 1998 biographical historical film Elizabeth shot her to stardom, earning her an Oscar nomination and widespread recognition.

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Since then, the decorated actor has achieved multiple accolades, including winning two Academy Awards for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004) and best actress for playing a neurotic socialite in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013). Blanchett has also won four BAFTA awards and four Golden Globes.

Despite her illustrious career spanning more than 33 years, Blanchett said she still struggles with her position at times.

“Like a lot of people, I like being alive. I throw myself into life, often in unwanted places. Maybe that’s why my career, if you call it a career, has been so strangely eclectic,” she told Radio Times.

“No one is more boring to me than myself and I find other people much more interesting. I find myself profoundly dull.”

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