Cate Blanchett practiced conducting for Tár in full Borderlands Lilith gear

Last Updated on August 31, 2024

Cate Blanchett stands as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, if not ever. And she is undoubtedly one of the most committed working today. This is something that Jamie Lee Curtis saw firsthand while making Borderlands with Blanchett, observing that she was practicing her Lydia Tár technique in between takes.

As Curtis – whose Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star Michelle Yeoh beat out Cate Blanchett for Best Actress – remembered, she would see Blanchett practicing conducting while in full Lilith get-up, which only added to the confusion. “I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ She said, ‘Oh, I have this job I’m going to next.’ She went straight to Berlin from Budapest. That’s how long ago we made this movie,” referring to the movie beginning filming in April 2021, four months before cameras on the Todd Field film rolled.

Blanchett admitted that the whole situation may have been strange to the Borderlands cast and crew. “Perhaps if you’re doing two things that were vaguely similar, it might be a little bit confusing, but you couldn’t get two more diametrically opposed projects than Borderlands and Tár.” She added, “When you’re doing something as physical as [Borderlands], you can only go up and down on a harness so many times before they have to turn the set around. There’d often be an hour where I had the time to sit down and look at the score. I always thought I was going to do needlepoint or knitting, but no.”

Cate Blanchett’s performance in Tár might rightly be considered one of the best of the century so far. That may sound like hyperbole, but Blanchett presents this character and the themes in a way that is simply unmatched, bringing forth the complexities of Todd Field’s screenplay with both composure and force. For more on our love of both Blanchett’s performance and the film itself, check out our 10/10 review. As for Borderlands…well… not so much.

Based on the popular first-person shooting series, Borderlands is directed by Eli Roth and also stars Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, and Ariana Greenblatt.