At the end of our final conversation, I asked — hoping to give her some relief from talking about the project of performance and the burdens of age — what’s delighting her right now, what ideas or wishes or artworks are keeping her company mentally. Her voice changed. “Gosh. I’m quite — ” she stopped. “Tired.” The tone of her voice shifted so suddenly, twisted to the forlorn so dramatically, that I grew alarmed. But she was just having trouble conjuring an answer to the question. It had been a long day, and now it was 11 o’clock: She was tired. What was on her mind? Learning to surf. The journalism of Anne Applebaum. Growing things in her garden. A slim novel called “Assembly,” by Natasha Brown. She paused. “You know what I’d love to do, too? I’d love to go for a really, really long walk.”
“How long?”
“Not one of those where I’m going to buy a pack of cigarettes and never come back — ” and we were laughing again. “Not that kind of walk.”
The thing about a long walk is it’s an experience of process, of being in the corridor between the place you started and the place you will eventually be. “It’s like that moment of suspension in dance when you don’t know whether the dancer is taking off or about to land,” Blanchett said. She gestured with her body, as if she were going to take wing and hover. “That moment, that intake of breath before the words come out or the music comes out.” She smiled. “I want to be there. I want to be permanently there.”
— Jordan Kisner, The Elusive Power of Cate Blanchett (NY Times Magazine, October 11, 2022)
I love her description of ‘that moment.’
Magic!
That is great place to be!
Thank you for sharing, and Happy Monday.
So perky this morning!
I have a long day ahead 🙂 6am to 6pm, back to back.
And I’m looking forward to the day.
Beautiful, after a long day, sometimes I wish to be in perfect stillness doing nothing.
Yes. Beautiful described. Perfect stillness. Me too….
Sometimes, we want to, have an, exit strategy, but we don’t want the ones we’re with, to feel that we are, too, impolite, so, we try and, excuse ourselves, trying, to, mske our, proper, exits…
So well described…
Ah, Cate….
Thank you for the link, DK; I’m subscribed and I never find the cool stuff you do!
Stick with me Dale. We make a good team.
This is very haunting on a number of levels. Maybe it’s because I feel her words could come from me. Maybe it was all the things she wanted to do, yet she interjected, “I’m tired.” In so many ways. Thanks for the emotional jog this morning.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
I heard that Cate Blanchard is a very gifted actress…I’ve not seen any of the movies she has been in – I googled her and looked at IMBD…She is obviously very intelligent and I like these words she spoke…”that intake of breath”…
So is! So gifted!
Elusive Power! makes me think of the power birds have to hover and to dart in another direction.
Right! Great metaphor!
She is simply magnificent….
She is!