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Cate Blanchett Press Conference

How much did you play with the idea that Elizabeth suffered from madness?
“It's interesting, yeah. I don't think I thought about it a lot. I did it in about three or four scenes, one of which was cut because it was talking about Mary Stuart. I think they decided there was a bit too much discussion about Mary Stuart, so they cut it out. But I tried to see through, and of course it's not in it all, her self-medicating with herbs and being physically unstable.

Because I thought at the time that I'm playing her, she would have been quite menopausal. That she was going through ‘the change’."

She was in her 40s?
“I think at the time I keep telling Remi, who shot it, to take off the stockings that he was shooting me through to show a few more wrinkles. (Laughing) But, you know, Shekhar likes women to look beautiful. So yeah, in terms of that madness, it was what was not only going on for her psychologically, but what was going on for her physically. I think that's great that you got a little texture of that, but I think the whole complexity of what I was trying to do maybe wasn't in the film.”

Do you think if it wasn't for Elizabeth, England would be speaking Spanish today?
“Quite possibly. But it's a really interesting thing to look at history, the history of failure. If we analyzed history, the failures that took place rather than the victories have influenced us incredibly, the way we've ended up where we are today. But absolutely, it would have been a very different place.”

Can you talk about your role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
“I can't. I'll be shot. And so will you. (Laughing) Don't joke, there's FBI people on the set.”

Could you talk about being part of such an iconic franchise like that?
“It's such a well-oiled, as you say, iconic franchise, and one in which I grew up with. And on the first day of shooting, it was extremely surreal. I was watching the monitor as Steven [Spielberg] set up the frame, and I knew the iconography of the frame. I knew the trucks; I knew the layout. I knew the way these things were lit, but yet when I was meant to enter the frame, it was a real [surreal] moment. So it's been fantastic and so much fun. And my boys have had an absolute ball. I've got a couple more weeks.”

Are they sworn to secrecy too?
“Yeah. Absolutely.”