In a new interview, the 'Thor: Ragnarok' villainess has expressed her keen interest in taking on the role of the controversial President of the United States on screen.
- June 5, 2020
AceShowbiz - Cate Blanchett has her eye on an unusual new role - she'd love to play U.S. President Donald Trump.
The actress, who previously gave her own take on Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There", and plays the late conservative activist and Trump supporter Phyllis Schlafly in the mini-series "Mrs. America", says she's eager to take on the role of the President himself.
"I would play Donald Trump in a heartbeat," she tells British newspaper The Times. "The comb-over? I'm there."
Schlafly, who led a successful campaign against an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the 1970s, endorsed Trump shortly before her death aged 92 in 2016, and posthumously released a book praising the President.
Blanchett sees parallels in the two figures and the culture wars they have inspired, saying, "It felt like with every passing week (of filming), issues that even two years ago would have been seen as tangential to the concerns of women and men today were profoundly and increasingly relevant."
She thinks figures like Schlafly, in particular, are difficult to understand as there's something unique to American culture that celebrates those who defy progressive attempts to move to a more equal society.
"It's very easy to say she was a crackpot," the "Aviator" star adds. "But look at the way people are responding differently to the virus. I'm an American citizen, but I don't live there, so I'm one step removed from it, but there is a profound thread in America of the rights of the individual, rather than who they are as a society. Phyllis was an individualist who prized hierarchy over change."
"Mrs. America" premieres on BBC Two in July 2020, having already debuted on Hulu.
