JUST WHO IS CATE BLANCHETT?

Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer

LONDON - Make that four productions Cate Blanchett is involved with this month. In addition to her starring role in ``Charlotte Gray,'' her elfish supporting performance in ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' and scene-stealingly slatternly turn in ``The Shipping News,'' she also gave birth, on Dec. 7, to her first child, Dashiell John.

Eight months pregnant at the time of this interview, Blanchett jokes that she hadn't decided on a name for the baby - ``I haven't even decided on a sex'' (she and her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton, had not ordered an ultrasound). Even seriously in the family way, she carries herself elegantly - her expanded lines, containing what she describes as a ``hiccuping'' baby, are crisply flattered in a skirted suit; she strides purposefully and gracefully in high heels - a feat, while pregnant, akin to anything the guys at Cirque du Soleil could manage.

Her hair, which changes style or color in virtually every movie - in keeping with her chameleonlike persona - is short and blond this day. Blanchett frequently brushes her bangs from her piercing blue eyes, shading them as the sun, reflecting off the Thames outside her hotel room window, warms her porcelain skin.

Back in front

Though having appeared in a number of roles, ``Charlotte Gray'' is Blanchett's first top billing since her Oscar-nominated turn in the 1999 film ``Elizabeth'' (coincidentally, down the hall from us is a reception honoring Judi Dench, who won the 1999 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the same character Blanchett essayed, albeit later in her life). In the romantic melodrama, Blanchett plays Gray, a young woman in London during World War II who ventures to Nazi-occupied France to become part of the Resistance. It isn't idealism moving her, so much as romance - she's hoping to help rescue a Royal Air Force pilot with whom she shared a dalliance, whose plane has crashed behind enemy lines.

Of course, it's never that easy: There's Julien (Billy Crudup), a ruggedly handsome, brooding member of the French Resistance, who makes it hard to focus on the task at hand.

It took two Australians to realize this British saga - Blanchett and director Gillian Armstrong, who notes that a subtle rift between the English and the French persists to this day: ``Being Australian made me a little more neutral. There's an interesting history between England and France, and it was fascinating to see there's still a little bit of that there. We had an English historian and a French historian, and there was this attitude: Why would we need a French historian? So the film needed a more balanced viewpoint - mine.''

``The book just broke my heart,'' Blanchett says of Sebastian Faulks' novel, which she read while researching a role in David Hare's ``Plenty'' on London's West End. ``It was tempered by the fact that the second world war was the death of honor for my character in the play, so she's catapulted into the cycle of moral despair, whereas Charlotte is galvanized by her experience. She's re-formed and remade by her experience. She emerges like a phoenix from the fire.''

Much as Blanchett herself did in the minds of moviegoers two years ago, with her alternately pretty and predatory turn in ``Elizabeth,'' a costume drama for conspiracy theorists.

She's everywhere

Since then, she's disappeared into dippy/eccentric American characters in ``The Talented Mr. Ripley,'' ``Pushing Tin'' and ``The Gift.'' This year, she's additionally appeared in the films ``Bandits'' and ``The Man Who Cried''; the National Board of Review named her Best Supporting Actress of 2001 for her collected work. She'll also appear in ``Heaven,'' directed by Tom Twyker (``Run Lola Run''), which will open in 2002, and is currently inspiring/terrifying Frodo as Galadriel the elf in the hit ``Lord of the Rings'' (you'll see her in the sequels, as well).

Of ``Rings,'' she says, ``My primary interest was to work with Peter (Jackson, the director). Only subsequently did I realize the ownership of the books (by fans), and I was glad I wasn't aware of it. Obviously, I knew how popular they were, but the quality of the obsession I wasn't aware of at all. I didn't realize that until I got to New Zealand, and I'm glad I didn't know it, because I would've been debilitated.''

Blanchett finds herself in a most tantalizing position: Having established herself as a character actor nonpareil, roles like ``Charlotte Gray'' suggest she's this close to major stardom. Trouble is, most major stars have an easy-to-grasp persona.

``I have no interest in establishing a persona, absolutely zero interest,'' she declares. ``I have chosen things that interested me at the time. If I wasn't engaged, then it was a cynical interest for the audience to be engaged in it. There are selfish reasons why you work and you want people to go and see it - some people are able to navigate that stuff incredibly well, but for me, it kind of gets in the way. I'm also an audience member, and I don't like seeing films when I know what the actors eat for breakfast and who they're dating. I just prefer to engage in the story. Any of that sort of stuff is incidental.''

Star material

Director Armstrong, however, believes Blanchett might be just a smidgen disingenuous.

``She's always been offered those bigger scripts,'' Armstrong declares. ``There's a great sense of freedom to take smaller roles - there's not the stress of having to carrying the film. It's a little hobby, a bit of fun. After finishing this film, she was off to 'Shipping News.' She was so tired, I couldn't believe she was doing this, but she said, 'No, it's fine.' She wasn't doing three-page dialogue scenes - someone else was having those sleepless nights.

``She is a movie star,''Armstrong concludes. ``She's among the most accomplished female actresses working today. She must be careful that she doesn't overdo these minor roles. She's getting a fantastic reaction in this film - it's her first role since 'Elizabeth' that's as meaty. People love to see a great actor get up there and take them on a journey. She should do more of those. I can see the charm of smaller roles - it's fun to just play and it can be scary to take on bigger roles. There's the question of, 'Can you carry a budget of this size?' - which is horrible for actors, I think.''

But Blanchett isn't interested in the perks or responsibilities that come with stardom. ``I find those definitions incredibly reductive,'' she says. ``So it's a matter of skirting around them to maintain the freedom in the choices you make as an actor. Because if you say, 'That's a role that I should be doing,' then I'd rather not do it. I just don't think that way. People treat one as being incredibly coy when you say that, but it's actually true.

``Hollywood wants to know, 'What is it you do?' '' she says dismissively. Then she adds, with a laugh, ``If I can keep them guessing, then maybe I'll keep working. At the end of the day, the audience isn't interested in seeing an actor's work - they want to see the drama.''

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(1 -- cover -- color) Mystery Cate

Star of Charlotte Gray refuses to be typecast

(2 -- 3) Cate Blanchett, as Galadriel at left with Elijah Wood in ``The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings,'' takes on a more realistic persona in her new World War II romance, ``Charlotte Gray,'' below.