Hollywood star Cate Blanchett was left so drained by her latest role as obsessive Lydia Tar she thought about quitting acting, which she says has also left her profoundly homesick for her Australian homeland.
The 53-year-old actress is being tipped for another Oscar for her portrayal of an obsessive composer in ‘Tar’, but said it was so physically and emotionally draining she thought about giving up work, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She told Australian show ‘The Sunday Project’: “I think it was because it was such a physical role, the echoes of it are still with me and I think I’m like a lot of audience members, I need time to process it.
“Obviously I’m lucky enough to work with some amazing directors who have changed my life, but when it all comes together like that, it does stay with you.”
Blanchett then laughed: “So I don’t ever want to work again.”
The actress, who has three sons and a daughter with her screenwriter husband Andrew Upton, 56, added her work across the globe has left her pining for her family and she has been left “profoundly homesick over the last four years” and she dreams of returning to her native Australia so she can garden and be near water.
She added: “I’m very obsessed, as most Australians, obsessed by water. I want to be by the water, in the water.
“I would love to learn to be patient, to be still and think. My grandmother was a wonderful gardener and my mother is likewise an excellent gardener and she lives with us, and I really want to spend time in the garden with my mum.”
Blanchett is tipped to win her second Best Actor Oscar for her role in ‘Tar’, after winning the award for the first time for her part in 2013’s ‘Blue Jasmine’ as a neurotic down-on-her-luck socialite.
Her character Lydia Tar becomes the first female conductor of a German orchestra, and the orchestra leader Natalie Murray Beale who trained Cate for the part said she grew so skilled she could now conduct in reality.
