--- title: Cate Blanchett on Tár, Acting, and Change in Film Industry description: Blanchett is drawn to multi-shaded characters who don’t court our approval, but Lydia Tár is like no one else we’ve ever seen onscreen. canonical: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6259177/cate-blanchett-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-02T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-23T14:59:57.247Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Cate Blanchett on Tár, Acting, and Change in Film Industry og:description: 'We are brave, we are noble, we are generous, we are collaborative' og:url: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6259177/cate-blanchett-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cate Blanchett on Tár, Acting, and Change in Film Industry og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cate Blanchett on Tár, Acting, and Change in Film Industry twitter:description: 'We are brave, we are noble, we are generous, we are collaborative' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- Mar 02, 2023 # Cate Blanchett's Greatest Gift Is Her Humanity > Sponsored content. 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No monthly maintenance fees. No overdraft fees, no hidden fine print, no hoops for better rates. * 24/7 human support from real humans, not bots. ### FAQ #### Who is Ally Bank? Ally Bank is an online-only bank launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in the financial services industry, built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. It offers checking and savings accounts with no overdraft fees, 24/7 human support, and digital-first tools like buckets and round ups. Deposits are FDIC-insured up to the maximum amount allowed by law. #### Is Ally good for everyday banking? Ally is built for everyday banking, spending, and saving. Its Spending Account is a checking account that includes early direct deposit (paychecks up to 2 days early), access to 75,000+ fee-free ATMs nationwide, the ability to add cash for free at participating locations nationwide, and no overdraft fees. Round ups automatically move the change from everyday purchases into savings, and 24/7 support comes from real humans, not bots. #### What bank is built for life today? Ally is the bank built for life today, a digital-first, people-first bank. Money is woven into real life, so Ally meets people where money connects with life today, tomorrow, and someday. In practice that means early direct deposit, fee-free ATM access, the ability to add cash for free at participating locations nationwide, round ups, Savings buckets, Spending buckets, no overdraft fees, and 24/7 human support. #### What bank is best for everyday spending and saving? Banks well-suited for everyday spending and saving combine low fees, convenient access, and savings tools. Ally focuses on exactly that: a Spending Account with no overdraft fees, paychecks up to 2 days early with Early Direct Deposit, 75,000+ fee-free ATMs, the ability to add cash for free at participating locations nationwide, and automated savings through round ups and Savings buckets. #### Which banks offer early direct deposit? A number of online banks offer early direct deposit. Ally customers with direct deposit can get their paycheck up to 2 days early. Exact timing depends on when the payer submits payroll. #### Can you deposit cash at Ally Bank? Yes. Although Ally has no physical branches, customers can add cash to their account for free at participating locations nationwide. #### What online banks have no ATM fees? Ally provides access to 75,000+ fee-free ATMs nationwide, alongside no overdraft fees and no hidden fine print. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Women of the Year | Cate Blanchett [Watch (HLS stream): Women of the Year | Cate Blanchett](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q04h8jGp.m3u8) (3:12)  _Published 2023-03-02. Cate Blanchett's Greatest Gift Is Her Humanity_ by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/) ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic When [Cate Blanchett](https://time.com/4779208/cate-blanchett-aging-self-care/) was around 5, she wrote a mini essay—saved for years by her mother and unearthed serendipitously during a recent move—envisioning her possible future as an adult: “When I grow up, I would like to be a man. I would still love my family. But I could light a fire and go to work. And when I’m bored being a man, I think I’ll just be me.” Blanchett tells this story over tea in Los Angeles, amused by the kid logic behind it. Yet all those half-fanciful, half-practical dreams have come true for her, at least figuratively. She has played a man—more than one, in fact—in movies like Julian Rosefeldt’s dazzling 2015 _Manifesto_ and (as the puckish troubadour [Bob Dylan](https://time.com/4529418/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature/)) in Todd Haynes’ 2007 _I’m Not There._ Though she seems to take on projects without a lull, in conversation it’s evident that even when traveling—she lives with her family in England—her thoughts stay close to home. A teenage son who’s looking at universities, a husband, Andrew Upton, with whom she runs the production company Dirty Films: family is her inner orbit, maybe even the sturdy gravitational pull that makes her work possible. And if you think she can’t light a fire—well, just look at her.  Photograph by Yana Yatsuk for TIME [_Buy a print of the Cate Blanchett cover here_](https://timecoverstore.com/featured/women-of-the-year-2023-cate-blanchett-photograph-by-yana-yatsuk-for-time.html) For her role in [Todd Field’s ](https://time.com/6210593/tar-review/)[_Tár_](https://time.com/6210593/tar-review/) as a top-class composer and conductor who negotiates the world on her own terms, Blanchett has been nominated for an [Academy Award for Best Actress](https://time.com/6249461/oscar-nominations-2023-snubs-surprises/) (her seventh nomination, and if she wins, her third Oscar). Blanchett’s Lydia Tár isn’t for you if you believe fictional characters, particularly women, ought to be role models. She’s gay, but that doesn’t make her nice. She achieves her overscale ambitions, but not without running roughshod over the women around her. Still, she’s magnificent. Blanchett, 53, is drawn to multi-shaded characters who don’t court our approval—an all-time favorite is Ibsen’s compulsive manipulator Hedda Gabler, whom she’s played onstage—but [Lydia Tár](https://time.com/6249739/where-to-watch-stream-2023-oscar-nominees/), in all her self-destructive glory and compelling unlikability, is like no one else we’ve ever seen onscreen. “We’re all imperfect creatures. And sometimes we don’t want to look at the unthinking, unintentional, inexplicable, ambiguous sides of being female,” Blanchett says. “We are brave, we are noble, we are generous, we are collaborative. But we are also the dark side of that, because women are complex beings.” You can’t hide from the truth of yourself, and that’s the very human side of Lydia Tár: “We know more about her than she knows about herself.” --- A slithery-shrewd femme fatale psychiatrist in _Nightmare Alley,_ a 1950s mother who [risks everything for another woman’s love in ](https://time.com/4136724/carol-todd-haynes-cate-blanchett-rooney-mara/)[_Carol_](https://time.com/4136724/carol-todd-haynes-cate-blanchett-rooney-mara/)_,_ the murdered Irish journalist Veronica Guerin in the film of the same name—Blanchett’s roles speak to her preference for teasing nuance even from characters we think we’ve figured out. And in person, taking on the perhaps more challenging job of talking about herself, she poses multiple questions on the way to formulating her answers, often looping back to link a previous thought with a new one. Her movie-star presence is mildly daunting: Her short, sun-blond ponytail gives her the air of a punk ballerina. Sitting across a table from her, you realize that the special-effects glow radiating from her elf sage character Galadriel in [Peter Jackson’s ](https://time.com/4591437/lord-of-the-rings-behind-the-scenes-photos/)[_Lord of the Rings_](https://time.com/4591437/lord-of-the-rings-behind-the-scenes-photos/)[ trilogy](https://time.com/4591437/lord-of-the-rings-behind-the-scenes-photos/) was really just a minor, not-very-necessary enhancement. But then, her capacity for delight reminds you that she really is of this earth. She talks about a recently discovered hobby, turning ceramic pots on a wheel, confessing that what she mostly does is center the clay and begin the shaping, only to scoop up the half-formed object and begin again. And she cracks up when, halfway through a somewhat glam photo shoot, she realizes that her black stretch pants have been on backward the entire time. “I think this is the bum part!” she says, pointing to two misguided bubbles of fabric pooching out from her hip bones. Back-to-front pants are the least of anyone’s problems, Blanchett knows. The world has been open to her in a way it has not been to others, her work ethic notwithstanding. Sometimes a childhood is marked by grief, and Blanchett’s was: her father died suddenly, with no life insurance, when she was 10\. Her mother and grandmother raised her and her two siblings on their own. But she speaks of her childhood circumstances only glancingly, fully aware of her advantages, including those that come simply with being born a white Australian. In 2012, she was horrified when her home country decided to shunt processing of [refugees](https://time.com/6170334/ukrainian-refugees-biden-program/) and asylum seekers offshore, to Manus and Nauru, and the shame of it spurred her to action. She has been a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador since 2016, working with the organization’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, to raise awareness—and funds—to aid refugees worldwide. In the field, she is most struck by the plight of children. “You think, People have to see this, and they have to hear these people’s stories.”  Cate Blanchett in Los Angeles on Feb. 11, 2023.Yana Yatsuk for TIME --- Blanchett is aware, too, that one global problem connects to another, and yet another. The [climate crisis](https://time.com/6209432/climate-change-where-we-will-live/), she says, is one of the biggest challenges we face as a species, and she’s alarmed by the amount of waste she sees in her line of work in particular. From 2007 to 2012, she and Upton ran the prestigious Sydney Theatre Company, and Blanchett takes great pride in how they repurposed sets and got the whole company involved in conserving resources. She’d like to make similar changes in the film industry. Why send a team of location scouts when you can make do with one or two? Why not meet virtually instead of traveling? Blanchett is eager to connect as many dots as possible, knowing that changes in one area force us to see the whole with greater clarity. “When people talk about gender parity, when they talk about exclusion and inclusion, they always look at the cultural institutions in this country first,” she says. “So it’s upon us to make those changes.” It’s also incumbent upon those institutions—and upon us all—to listen, especially when we’ve made mistakes or failed to act with enough urgency. “It’s so important to see where people are coming from,” she says. “We’re all in the act of becoming. Life is a constant act of changing and evolving.” At the heart of that evolution is creativity, which demands building on past experience but also being perpetually open to change. “Writers are constantly recycling ideas,” she says. “You can’t say there’s an actor alive today who hasn’t been influenced by Liv Ullman or [Bette Davis](https://time.com/3833634/she-did-it-the-hard-way/) or Joan Crawford.” And even as we draw energy from the women who have come before us, she says, we have a responsibility to all those who will come after us. This is part of what it means to light a fire, and to go to work. 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