Cate Blanchett is ready to slow down

NEW YORK  — Oscar winner Cate Blanchett stars in three films released in time for this year’s Oscar season, but the Australian actress says she does not intend to keep up this pace.

She plays three very different roles in “Babel” with Brad Pitt, in “The Good German” with George Clooney, and in “Notes on a Scandal” with Judi Dench.

But Blanchett, 37, and her playwright husband Andrew Upton were recently appointed creative directors of The Sydney Theatre Company, where she began her career 13 years ago, and she has said she will now only film for three months of the year.

Blanchett, a mother of two, spoke to Reuters recently about acting, moving back to her native Australia and one of her latest favorite topics — the environment:

Q: How did you switch within a few days to play such different roles from “Notes on a Scandal” to “The Good German”?

A: I just braced myself for it. I don’t think I could have done that five or six years ago but I think I have a greater kind of facility just from the act of doing it. But I did panic when I landed in [Los Angeles] and [director Steven Soderbergh] changed his mind and wanted me to speak German. That’s when I went “oh, okay how am I going to do that one?” Usually you would like six months to prepare for that.

Q: You won an Academy Award in 2005 for best supporting actress in “The Aviator.” How do you view the Oscars?

A: There is an immense media focus on them, more so than there is a focus by actors on it, certainly this actor, and it is not that they are not wonderful things, it’s just, so if you are not nominated does that mean your work is not good? If you don’t win? I don’t feel entitled to win one and I don’t feel I was entitled to win one when I did. It doesn’t mean you are any better, it just means that you got two more votes than somebody else.

Q: Will your film load lessen when you take up your position at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008?

A: I couldn’t sustain the level of making films I made in 2005. It was an extraordinary year making “Babel,” “Notes” and “The Good German” and whilst that was absolutely thrilling and an actress doesn’t get those opportunities in a lifetime, let alone in one year, very often, I couldn’t do that every year.

Q: What is the appeal of returning to Australia besides the new role at The Sydney Theatre Company?

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A: It’s the culture that we are constantly referring to and we are drawing from and I think also with children, it is home. And there is a lot to be done environmentally in Australia. We are running out of water.

Q: You said that you don’t make five-year plans, but what do you foresee for rest of your career?

A: If we can green the building at The Sydney Theatre Company that would be a big achievement and I would love to see the government in Australia actually provide rebates for people to put water tanks and storm water storage, water recycling, greywater, blackwater and solar paneling.

Q: And in terms of acting?

A:  Well, you have got use your powers for good as well as to further culture in particular. I think working with and through The Sydney Theatre Company — this is not a thing that one does for two years — in order to progress within the company, if the board will have us, that is kind of a long term commitment.