Cate Blanchett has said that her film TÁR is not “anti-woman”.
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The actor had faced a string of critiques in an interview given by leading female conductor Marin Alsop to The Sunday Times. Alsop called the film “anti-woman” and went as far as to say it was “heartbreaking” that Blanchett’s character had been developed the way it has.
However, Blanchett responded to Alsop’s comments while speaking to BBC Radio 4 [as per The Independent] on Thursday (January 12). Blanchett said that while she had “utmost respect” for Alsop, the film was actually about the “corrupting nature of power”. She added: “I think that power is a corrupting force no matter what one’s gender is. I think it affects all of us.”
The response from the Thor: Ragnarok star came after Alsop, who is namechecked in the film, criticised TÁR amid suggestions that Blanchett’s character, Lydia Tár, had drawn inspiration from her.
The conductor said: “I was offended as a woman, I was offended as a conductor, I was offended as a lesbian. There are so many men – actual, documented men – this film could have been based on but, instead, it puts a woman in the role but gives her all the attributes of those men. That feels anti-woman.
“To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser? For me that was heartbreaking.”
Asked about Alsop’s comments, Blanchett responded, saying: “I have the utmost respect for Marin Alsop. She’s a trailblazer of a musician and a conductor. And, it’s a very provocative film and it will elicit a lot of very strong responses for people.
“What [director Todd Field] and I wanted to do was to create a really lively conversation. So there’s no right or wrong responses to works of art. It’s not a film about conducting, and I think that the circumstances of the character are entirely fictitious.”
She added: “I looked at so many different conductors, but I also looked at novelists and visual artists and musicians of all stripes. It’s a very non-literal film.”
Blanchett went on to say that Alsop was “entitled to her opinion”, but defended the film from claims that it was offensive to women. She added that it was a “meditation on power and power is genderless”.
The actor added: “I don’t think you could have talked about the corrupting nature of power in as nuanced away as Todd Field has done as a filmmaker if there was a male at the centre of it because we understand so absolutely what that looks like.
“I think that power is a corrupting force no matter what one’s gender is. I think it affects all of us.”
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