Blanchett finally reprises role of Queen Elizabeth

It took Cate Blanchett almost a decade to say yes to Shekhar Kapur. The Indian director who made "Elizabeth" -- the film that put the Australian actress on the map in 1998 with an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win -- had been asking her to reprise the role for years.

"The minute Shekhar approaches the end of a film, he's got five more he wants to do," says Blanchett, who came close to working with him on one about the Indian stuntwoman Nadia Wadia. "We kept in touch, but I didn't feel like enough time had passed to play Elizabeth again."

But enough time had indeed passed. "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" opens Friday.

One of Blanchett's concerns was that the British queen had been played so well by so many others. Glenda Jackson did her twice, in "Elizabeth R" and "Mary, Queen of Scots"; Bette Davis had the role in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex"; Helen Mirren grabbed an Emmy for "Elizabeth I."

"There's a long screen history," she says. "She's endlessly fascinating, and there are endless possibilities with her."

So why did she finally say yes?

"I had to wait until the story started to emerge," she says, then changes her answer in mid-thought, putting it all on herself. "No matter what the film is, you have to come in fresh to a character. It's what can I say, what can I bring to it? The first film was about denial, about denying herself in order to rule. But this one, to me, was a lot about acceptance. It's about a woman who knew she was aging."

The film picks up in the late 1500s, with the popular Elizabeth being challenged by the threat of a Spanish invasion, giving thought to a romance with the wily Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) in order to produce an heir, and coming to grips with seeing lines on her face when she stares into a mirror.

"For me it's a very interior, internal film," she says, "despite the fact that there are set pieces and action with the [Spanish] Armada. What's going on inside the characters is very interior."

She credits Kapur with giving her, and the rest of the cast, an expansive palette on which to work.

"Shekhar is able to raise the stakes to a level a lot of directors are frightened of because they fear it's too melodramatic," she explains. "He's able to create this constant sense of anxiety and danger which, to play, is really exciting. It keeps your curiosity and your attention kind of constantly up."

Blanchett is also still very grateful for having the opportunity to do the part in the original film.

"Playing her the first time around changed a lot for me," she says. "Having to be that responsible -- to drive a film -- it was the first time I'd ever done it. I was exercising muscles I hadn't exercised before. But Elizabeth was incredibly inspiring -- her intellect and her ability to negotiate her way in waters that had been almost uncharted, dealing with a minefield of political associations. And she was a great patron of the arts. You can look at what we know of as the birth of English-speaking culture in large part due to her patronage."

Yet Blanchett admits that she probably would not want to be Elizabeth.

"I wouldn't like to be as isolated as she was," she says. "I'm lucky to have a private life that happily and richly balances my work life."

Over her career, Blanchett has played an array of very unconventional women, from the psychic in "The Gift" to the runaway housewife in "Bandits" to the Elf queen in "Lord of the Rings" to her Oscar-winning portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator."

"I think it's the way most women live their lives," she says of the word "unconventional." "If they live conventional lives, they certainly have unconventional fantasy lives. That's why we go to the cinema. That's why we connect with stories, how we can connect with secret, private thoughts. You're tapping into a subconscious terrain. I think women are wonderfully wild and incredibly unexpected."

But then, just to catch everyone off guard, or perhaps to stretch her own acting chops, Blanchett turns around and plays a man. She dons a fright wig, puts on a whiny voice, grabs a guitar and costars, along with five other actors, as one of six Bob Dylan-like characters in the upcoming "I'm Not There."

So was it more difficult to play Elizabeth or as Dylan?

"They're not easily confused," she says, laughing. "If you look at a portrait of them, you're struck by their physical appearance. They're so iconic and unique; there's Dylan in '65 when he was going electric, and Elizabeth is the ultimate icon as a ruler.

"But it's always important to start from the script and the story and what I'm playing in a particular scene," she adds. "So the external appearance is usually the last thing that I think of."

Ed Symkus can be reached at esynmkus@cnc.com.