Cate Blanchett on social media and selfies: ‘I cannot for the life of me work out why adults are participating in that s**t’

And other refreshing quotes from a straight-talking actress

Cate Blanchett (Gareth Cattermole/Getty)

In this world of clenched smiles, contrived interviews, gender disparity and the growing influence of social media, there is one woman in the public eye rejecting it all.

While most interviews are tightly controlled by PRs, discussions with Cate Blanchett will often produce a series of honest, funny and engaging quotes that tackle sexism, feminism and the hypocrisy of the film industry.

This week, the Blue Jasmine actress took aim at a global obsession with selfies that spawned selfie sticks, ‘belfies’ and Kim Kardashian’s Selfish book, telling Yahoo: “I think it’s because people constantly are taking pictures of ourselves to send them to people to see, ‘do they like me?’

“It’s pathetic, the whole thing about people worrying about what other people are going to think.”

Blanchett has given some interesting responses on a few other issues, too.

On social media

Blanchett also shared her thoughts on the effect the digital age has had on the world in the same interview with Yahoo. “I cannot for the life of me work out why adults are participating in that s**t’”.

On being asked by an interviewer how her character keeps her cat on a leash in a film

Let us never forget the lesson journalists learned when one dared to begin an interview with possibly the most inane one he could come up with. An incredulous Blanchett could only respond: “That’s your question? That’s your f**king question?”

On the way the media objectifies women on the red carpet

Blanchett decried the annual parades that actresses are expected to take part in during awards season. “Since I’ve been strutting the red carpet, things have changed a lot,” she said. “The way women are asked about those red carpet moments. Oh my God. It’s just a dress! Next it will be, ‘What brand tampon are you wearing?’”

On the E! red capart Glam Cam after it scanned her from top to bottom

Another lesson learned by interviewers came when Blanchett spotted the camera giving her the once over as she was interviewed on SAG red carpet in 2014. Bending down as her interviewer kept speaking, she peered into the lens and asked: “Do you do that to the guys?”

On never having botox: “I look at people sort of entombing themselves and all you see is their little pin holes of terror... and you think, just live your life, death is not going to be any easier just because your face can't move.“