Nooo, Don’t Quit Acting You’re So Sexy Aha

Cate Blanchett said she's "serious" about walking away from acting to do things that are apparently more important than furthering the lesbian agenda.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  April 15, 2025 | 4:37pm
Photo: Getty Images CelebritiesEntertainment
Nooo, Don’t Quit Acting You’re So Sexy Aha

On Monday, some truly upsetting news reached my desk: Cate Blanchett—Oscar-winner, lesbian icon who isn’t actually a lesbian, and the woman who brought us Lydia Tár—has every intention of stepping away from acting in the not-so-distant future. Do you hear that? It’s prestige cinema taking its final, wheezing breath and the plaintive wail of every woman who discovered she was queer via Carol or Ocean’s Eight.

“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting,” Blanchett said in an interview with Radio Times. Why? Apparently, there’s “a lot of things” she wants to do with her life apart from being on the big screen. What could possibly be better than gagging us all on the regular? Being a wife and mother? You’re already both to many, babe!

Because it’s Blanchett, she offered a metaphor about theater to explain her decision. In addition to Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag, she recently starred in a production of The Seagull, a play by Anton Chekhov in London.

“Theatre lives or dies based on your connection to the audience and listening to how they’re responding and trying to bring them with you, and also your connection with the ensemble that you’re working with,” Blanchett said. “That listening is so intense. I have to really focus on bringing the same quality of listening into my life.” Damn it. That’s beautiful.

Apparently, the Hollywood Industrial Complex in all of its pomp and circumstance is partially to blame for Blanchett’s choice to walk away.

“When you go on a talk show, or even here now, and then you see soundbites of things you’ve said, pulled out and italicized, they sound really…loud.” Blanchett said, “I’m not that person.”

“No one is more boring to me than myself and I find other people much more interesting,” she tacked on. “I find myself profoundly dull.”

All of this is admirable if not totally endearing. Honestly, I stand in solidarity with anyone who wants to quit their job. And yet, is there some sort of existing coven out there that can help me ensure her retirement never happens? Let’s get those candles lit.

 
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