Cinema usher Hazel Shaw tells us why she backs Cate Blanchett for this year’s Best Actress win at the Oscars.
Cate Blanchett doesn’t deserve the Oscar for Best Actress because she is beautiful. That would be ridiculous. But there is something about the way her performance in Carol translates her beauty so precisely into her character’s. She has a straight-out-of-nowhere, ethereal quality that allows her to fill a role that’s been waiting for her since 1952 when Patricia Highsmith (writing under the name Claire Morgan) wrote The Price of Salt, the novel from which Carol was adapted. Blanchett’s presence is understated, nuanced and powerful. With a tilt of her head, a flick of her eyes, a tap of her cigarette and a short word, she says far more than anybody else could. In a film so much about a relationship that stays secret, thanks to what director Todd Haynes has called “the just unimagined notions of what love between women might look like,” Blanchett’s performance perfectly captures a woman who often refuses to say what is so clearly on her mind.
Want to find out who else our ushers are backing at the Oscars? Click to read their choice for Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Director.
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