Touching our hearts with her splendid performances both on the stage and on screen, Cate Blanchett is unanimously regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation. Be it capturing the early years of the Queen of England in Elizabeth, playing one of the greatest of the Elves in the Lord of the Rings series, or nailing Marvel’s villainous Goddess of Death in Thor: Ragnarok, her roles have never ceased to amaze us. However, it looks like the role that showered her with maximum responsibilities is one that we don’t get to see.
In 2020 during the lockdown, Cate took up a role that she would forever cherish. She turned into her seven-year-old daughter Edith’s teacher, Mrs Venables Kyrke while homeschooling her. This was in accordance with Edith’s demand from her mother to impersonate her teacher. The 52-year-old actress told BBC that Edith would not allow her to teach her mathematics or do phonics unless she put on Mrs Kyrke’s voice and dressed up as her.
“I had an array of stuffed animals who also had to be taught. It wasn’t an offer I made. It was a request she made,” she said.
Cate also revealed that homeschooling her four children during the lockdown led to great learning about how awesome teachers were. Having stepped into the shoes of a teacher for her children, Cate said she realised how tough it was for teachers to stand up in a class of 30 or more, mostly disinterested children, and try to interest them in mediaeval history.
Cate spent almost a year in lockdown at their family home in East East Sussex “with the pigs and the chickens and watching The Sopranos.” Cate has been residing in the English countryside with husband Andrew Upton since 2016. Just before lockdown started in 2020, she had finished filming for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Ally’ which was released in December 2021. The psychological thriller also starred Bradley Cooper, William Dafoe, Toni Collete and Rooney Mara.
