Cate Blanchett more than happy to talk about family

She was here as a beauty brand's guest and to launch its latest product.

But no one was talking about Cate Blanchett's beauty after her interview with US entertainment trade magazine Variety came out on Tuesday.

When discussing her new movie Carol, a lesbian love story co-starring Rooney Mara, the magazine asked if playing the title role was her first intimate experience with a woman.

To which the Oscar winner replied: "On film or in real life?"

But the topic was off limits for the SK-II Brand Ambassador yesterday when she was in town as the beauty brand's guest at Singapore Fashion Week.

It was one of the questions barred from her press conference and the subsequent roundtable interview.

Also banned were questions of the Australian actress' move to the US and the latest addition to her family, a daughter whom she adopted earlier this year.

However, Blanchett, 46, was more than happy to discuss her little girl.

When asked about being the lone woman in a family of men (she has three sons with her screenwriter and director husband, Andrew Upton), she said with a hearty laugh: "We just adopted a little girl. That wasn't by design but it just happened to us and it's lovely.

"I got worried about it, actually. The two female dogs we've had all ran away. What does it say about me?

"I hope my daughter doesn't do a similar thing. You can't put a GPS tracking collar on her."

Blanchett was also happy to talk about the movie Carol, which is set in a 1950s New York department store where an older married woman (Blanchett) falls in love with a younger shop-girl (Mara).

FRAGILE PROJECT

She said it was a movie that took a long time to get started.

"The project was very fragile. It got off and the money fell away and returned with various incarnations. I thought it was never going to get made.

"Then I got a call from Todd Haynes, whom I worked with on a film about Bob Dylan (I'm Not There), and he said, 'I love to do this, are you still interested? And I said, 'If you are, then I am definitely'."

She added: "In the end, you can have the best screenplay in the world but it's very much - particularly on film - who's looking down the lens at you."

Like a good guest, Blanchett made sure she gave SK-II the lion's share of the limelight.

She was here to launch SK-II's latest sprays, the new Miracle Essence.

She cooed: "I've never had anyone comment on my skin until I was in my late 30s and early 40s. And I've not done anything except use SK-II and stay out of the sun."

When she travels, she puts an SK-II mask on her face.

She confessed: "I used to wait till the lights go out, but now I don't care. And I used to transfer the miracle essence into a travel-size bottle, but now SK-II has done it for me."

But if you are ever on the red carpet with her, be careful not to focus only on her beauty and fashion.

Blanchett is a supporter of the #AskHerMore movement, which calls for red-carpet reporters to ask more than just the brand of the dress.

She said: "Of course, you want to look your best on that day. But when you know your work is not even mentioned and they'd rather know about your pedicure than how you approached a particular scene, you're being professionally sidelined.

"It got to the point if you mention it, you're being strident or complaining, but it's not that.

"It's just that it doesn't have to be this way. We're more intelligent than that."

And for the first time, a look of annoyance flashed across her dewy, luminous face: "Let's move on. Next!"

This article was first published on May 15, 2015.
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