Cate Blanchett’s co-star Richard Roxburgh reveals how she made ‘a complete idiot of herself’ on set

Cate Blanchett’s long-time co-star Richard Roxburgh has cheekily revealed she will happily ‘make a complete idiot of herself’ when on set.

The 63-year-old Australian actor recently discussed his experiences working with Cate on the A Life of Greatness podcast.

‘Cate is incredibly brave. She is so happy to make a complete idiot of herself. She will do things in the rehearsal room,’ Richard began.

‘I remember we were doing a play at the Sydney Theatre Company. She would do things on the rehearsal floor.

‘You just think “Oh my God”. Totally shameless and unguarded.’

His remarks coincide with Cate’s reputation for being a bold actress who works extremely hard to get into character. 

Cate Blanchett’s long-time co-star Richard Roxburgh has cheekily revealed she will ‘make a complete idiot’ of herself when on set 

Richard has co-starred in three movies with Cate, including the 1997 drama film Oscar and Lucinda, and also appeared on stage with her in several productions.

In 2017, they were co-stars in the Broadway show The Present, which is an adaption of an Anton Chekhov play, adapted by Cate’s husband Andrew Upton.

The pair celebrated their time together on the show with the unveiling of their caricatures at the world-famous Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City.

It follows reports that Cate has plans to retire from showbusiness, after decades in the industry.

The Oscar-winning actress, 55, hesitated about her job title during a recent interview with Radio Times and explained: ‘It’s because I’m giving up [acting]. My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious.’

The Melbourne-born actress insisted she still had ‘a lot of things I want to do with my life’.

The Little Fish star, who recently starred in an adaptation of Chekov’s The Seagull at the Barbican, London, did not give a time frame for her departure from the entertainment industry. 

But it is not the first time that she has threatened to quit her career despite international acclaim.

The 63-year-old Australian actor recently discussed his experiences working with Cate on the A Life of Greatness podcast

‘Cate is incredibly brave. She is so happy to make a complete idiot of herself,’ Richard said

Cate told Vanity Fair in 2023 that she has often toyed with the idea of walking away from her acting work.

She said: ‘It’s not occasional — it’s continual. On a daily or weekly basis, for sure.

‘It’s a love affair, isn’t it? So you do fall in and out of love with it, and you have to be seduced back into it.’

Despite her latest declaration, the Lord of the Rings star recently featured in her first radio play on Radio 4, in a 90-minute monologue titled The Fever.

Written by Wallace Shawn, Cate played an unnamed traveller who fell ill in a foreign country riven by civil war.

The mother-of-four explained why she had chosen to embark on her first audio radio project.

She told the Radio Times: ‘I’m obsessed with the psychological space that is the interior of people’s cars. Often the most profound and intense and memorable conversations I have with my children are in the car.’

‘That special space was where my 16-year-old encountered Desert Island Discs and now he’s completely obsessed with it, and, because the school run is quite long, it’s where I listen to long-form radio drama.’

Cate has racked up thousands of rave reviews over the last 30 years after working tirelessly across dozens of projects in theatre, film and TV.