While we should be talking about the stellar critical response for Todd Haynes’s Carol, Cate Blanchett’s comment about having sexual relationships with women was a main topic at the Cannes Film Festival. However, she insists that her quote was taken out of context.
Before the beginning of the festival, Blanchett did an interview with Variety, in which she reportedly said that she had lesbian encounters with women “many times.”
During the Carol press conference though, Blanchett explained that the Variety reporter didn’t include the full quote.
“From memory, the conversation ran, 'Have you had relationships with women?' And I said, 'Yes, many times. If you mean I've had sexual relationships with them, the answer is 'No' -- but that obviously didn't make it to print,” Blanchett said, reports Reuters. “But in 2015, the point should be: Who cares?”
Carol was directed by Haynes and centers on a lesbian relationship between Blanchett’s title character and a shopgirl played by Rooney Mara. It is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel. Haynes, who is known for directing HBO’s Mildred Pierce and Far From Heaven, considered the film a tribute to the David Lean classic Brief Encounter, which is also about an affair.
“It was the first sort of lesbian story that had a happy ending,” Blanchett said of the Highsmith novel.
Blanchett is a two-time Oscar winner and was just seen on the big screen in Disney’s Cinderella. Carol does not have an American release date yet, but it sounds like something that will hit theaters around Oscar season.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com