Cate's a goddess of the screen

By Rachel Rodda

LUMINOUS actor Cate Blanchett has once again impressed Hollywood with her latest role – and mastered a new accent – in the film The Talented Mr Ripley.

The Sydney-based former NIDA graduate stars alongside some of the world's hottest acting talent, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law, in the movie, which was shot in Italy.

Her role was substantially rewritten by director Anthony Minghella when she agreed to take on the small part as a New York heiress. At the world premiere in Los Angeles yesterday, the Academy Award-winning director of The English Patient said he substantially boosted her role, calling her a "goddess".

"She walks on water, Cate Blanchett," he enthused. Dressed in a cream wraparound coat, Blanchett laughed off the praise: "Oh, he's a flatterer."

Damon also appreciates her talents. In the movie, he is her love interest, a killer who assumes the identity of his victim, a young playboy in 1950s Italy.

"She's as good an actress as there is in the world right now. Australia should be very proud of her," Damon said at the premiere. It has been a whirlwind year for Blanchett, who has appeared on stage in London in David Hare's play Plenty, filmed The Man Who Cried, in Paris, and attended the opening of Sydney's Fox Studios last month.

For her dramatic title role in Elizabeth, she won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award nomination, losing out to Paltrow. Next year, she will begin the $15 million film The Gift, written by Billy Bob Thornton.

The Australian, Tuesday, 14th December, 1999.

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