Cate Blanchett Says She's Had 'Many' Relationships With Women

Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Talk about commitment to the Method style of acting! Actress Cate Blanchett, currently shooting a lesbian-themed movie, fessed up to having had "many" relationships with women.

Pink News UK reports that Blanchett, speaking on shooting her new film, "Carol," based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, "The Price of Salt," in which she plays an older woman in 1950s New York involved in an affair with a younger woman, played by Rooney Mara, dished the dirt on her multiple real-life affairs with women.

When a reporter asked whether it was her first-time dalliance with lesbianism, Blanchett cooly replied, "On film, or in real life?" Oh, snap! When pressed on whether she'd really had past relationships with women, she said, "Yes, many times."

Blanchett, who has been married for the past 18 years to playwright Andrew Upton with whom she has four children, said she has thrown herself into the role she is playing for "Carol," noting, "I read a lot of girl-on-girl books from the period. I think there are a lot of people that exist like [her character] who don't feel the need to shout things from the rafters."

Where's the fun in that?

The Highsmith novel is unlike these pulp fiction paperbacks in that it portrays a realistic relationship between two women, with a chance at a happy ending. The novel follows a young department store worker Therese, who becomes infatuated with a wealthy wife and mother. Highsmith said the story was based on an incident in her own life.

Although she declined to go into details about her own past, she told news.com.au that her character was bisexual, but "doesn't necessarily rely on labels for sexual orientation."

"I never thought about it," said Blanchett of her character. "I don't think Carol thought about it."

The film, which premiers next week at Cannes Film Festival, was 15 years in the making. Blanchett said it was very hard to get it funded.

"Mid-range films with women at the center are tricky to finance," she said. "There are a lot of people laboring under the misapprehension that people don't want to see them, which isn't true."

Perhaps this juicy revelation will send more people to the theater to check it out. Although if the thought of this blond bombshell sharing secret liaisons with the saucy brunette from "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" isn't enough to get you to the movies, what is?


by Winnie McCroy , EDGE Editor

Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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