HER MAJESTY CATE BLANCHETT FINDS NEW MEANING IN THE FAMILIAR ROLE OF ELIZABETH I.

Byline: GLENN WHIPP 

>FILM WRITER

Cate Blanchett wasn't adverse to playing Queen Elizabeth I again. You don't, after all, reject out of hand the chance to reprise a role that won you an Oscar nomination and established your movie career.

But when she drove to the Hotel Bel Air two years ago to meet with actor Geoffrey Rush and "Elizabeth" director Shekhar Kapur, Blanchett needed a reason why she should make a sequel. And the answer couldn't just be money or the mere fact that she had won acclaim playing the part back in 1998 because, frankly, Blanchett doubted she had anything more to offer Elizabeth as an actress.

So it was up to Rush and Kapur to persuade her otherwise. As Kapur remembers it, he was immediately struck with Blanchett's appearance.

"I hadn't seen her for several months, she was looking so beautiful," Kapur says. "I just sat there in amazement and finally said, 'Cate, you've never looked so stunning in your life.' And that was all I said. Geoffrey did all the heavy lifting."

That "heavy lifting" involved laying out the sequel's story of a monarch choosing divine apartness over human emotions. It also involved a bit of candor, with Rush telling Blanchett not to be so precious about picking roles.

"You're getting older," Rush told her. "Parts like this won't be offered to you forever."

Blanchett wasn't exactly moved by Rush's reasoning.

"I've had a pretty good time creatively since 'Elizabeth,' " she says, offering a resume that includes an Oscar for playing Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator" and choice roles in movies like "Notes on a Scandal" and "Babel."

"I think because I've been lucky enough to be able to choose things that interest me," Blanchett, 38, continues. "A career is born of what you do with the opportunities that present themselves."

And doubts be damned, playing Elizabeth again was an opportunity, one that Blanchett couldn't pass up. In the end, what convinced her was that enough time had passed for her to play the Virgin Queen in a different way, as a monarch confronting the passage of time and a woman hearing the ticking of her biological clock.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" takes place 10 years after the events in the first movie, which ended, as you might remember, with a powder-faced Elizabeth leaving behind her carefree youth and assuming the reserved, revered role of a worshipped monarch.

As we know from watching Helen Mirren playing Elizabeth II last year, it's not easy being queen. "The Golden Age" explores that idea.

Blanchett's Elizabeth falls in love with the dashing explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), knowing her feelings must be denied.

There are plots against her, alliances offered through marriage and a nutty Catholic king, Spain's Philip II, intent on waging a holy war against the Protestant Elizabeth.

"When I finished filming the first movie, I realized it had become an examination of power in the context of squashing of your inner being," Kapur says. "Now, I wanted to take that person forward even further and talk about the conflict between wanting children, wanting sexuality as a woman and then having to let go. And realizing the only way to do it was to become divine."

Says Blanchett: "Elizabeth's war is raging internally. That is the difference in this movie. But both films are unabashedly romantic and melodramatic. And that won't be everybody's bag."

It certainly wasn't at the Toronto Film Festival, where many critics panned the movie. And you get the feeling that Kapur's penchant for creating on-set chaos to goose his creative juices isn't necessarily Blanchett's bag, who says, "I'm quite of the belief that one doesn't have to be unhinged in order to play an unhinged character."

Blanchett also doesn't fully buy into Kapur's comparisons between Elizabeth and another isolated royal, Princess Diana. Kapur says both women were viewed as divine by their subjects, and that worship both empowered and imprisoned them. He thought about Diana often while making the movie.

"There is a connection, but only tangentially," Blanchett says. "For someone who is isolated, the public becomes an important part of who they are. But it's all supposition in the end, isn't it?"

As is speculation that Blanchett will play Elizabeth again in a third film that will chronicle the queen's final years. Kapur wants to complete what he envisions as a trilogy of movies examining power.

What happens when the divine becomes mortal? That's the question he says the third film would ask.

"There is that great story of Elizabeth standing for 12, 18 hours in front of a window before she died," Blanchett says. "That level of control, that kind of willpower ... it's astounding. What was she thinking?"

Blanchett pauses, considering the question.

"I have to admit," she says finally, "it would be a great scene to play."

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

Fast forward to the 20th century

Working her way back to Queen Elizabeth isn't the only thing Cate Blanchett is up to these days. In November's "I'm Not There," she dons a wig and ACE-bandages her breasts to play Bob Dylan circa "Blonde On Blonde," a spot-on performance that has already nabbed her festival awards and Oscar buzz.

There's also that "small, independent number" she's currently filming. You may have read about it somewhere: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Blanchett, who peppers her conversation with references to Bertolt Brecht and Sonic Youth, isn't one for big revelations. But she did share the following about the two movies:

On Dylan's gift: "In 'Chronicles,' he describes this song: 'It was a nice song, but it's not one in which you hear the roar of the universe.' And I just thought, '(Expletive)! This guy has actually heard the roar of the universe.' "

On her Dylan concert experiences: "He's hit and miss. Sometimes he's doing a concert for himself. Sometimes he's doing it for other people. And you hope you're getting him on a night when he's doing it for other people. But there are no guarantees."

On whether she'd ever like to meet Dylan: "Oh no. I'd be too in awe. Who needs that kind of terror in their lives?"

On whether "Indy" star Harrison Ford's bones are a little brittle these days: "He is looking good, don't you worry about that. He did this huge, long stunt just the other day and it was remarkable. He's full of energy and vigor."

On whether she'll be joining Ford in the stunt arena: "I went on set one day and Steven (Spielberg) had a big grin on his face and said, 'I've got a few macho things for you to do today.' After playing an interior role like Elizabeth, it felt great to step into this physical genre."

On whether a crystal skull would make a suitable wedding gift: "If you want the marriage to end in divorce, absolutely."

On whether she is, as rumored, a villain in the movie: "Well, I don't have any love scenes with Indy. I can tell you that. If I told you anything else, I'd be getting a crystal skull in the mail -- and so would you."

>GLENN WHIPP

>QUEEN BEES

Life was ruff for these actresses who portrayed Elizabeth I in various film and television productions.

> Bette Davis

"The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Esses" 1939

> Jean Simmons

"Young Bess" 1953

> Glenda Jackson

"Mary, Queen of Scots" 1972

> Judi Dench

"Shakespeare in Love" 1998

> Anne-Marie Duff

"The Virgin Queen" 2005

> Helen Mirren

"Elizabeth I" 2005

CAPTION(S):

10 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) regal baring

Cate Blanchett reveals the woman beneath the silk and velvet in 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age'

(2 -- color) no caption (Kate Blanchett)

MICHAEL OWEN BAKER>LA.COM

(3) Cate Blanchett

(4) Blanchett as a young Dylan.

(5) > Bette Davis

(6) > Jean Simmons

(7) > Glenda Jackson

(8) > Judi Dench

(9) > Anne-Marie Duff

(10) > Helen Mirren

Box:

(1) > QUEEN BEES (see text)

(2) Fast forward to the 20th century (see text)