"I was unprepared for how much it would shift me off my axis in a wonderful and deep way," Cate Blanchett says of her work on the sublime new film TÁR. The Todd Field-helmed film centers on the actor’s performance as the titular conductor, a woman navigating conflicted power dynamics and personal struggles while also attempting to write an orchestral masterwork.
As the film delves deeper into her psyche, that dreamlike music seems to consistently ring out just past the edges of her hearing. Paired with a score from Hildur Guðnadóttir (in her first film since her Oscar-winning composition for Joker), Blanchett’s performance allows TÁR to stretch and mold across revelatory levels of realism and tumultuous emotion.
A big part of building to that point came in Blanchett’s quest to submerge herself not only in orchestral music, but in the language of music — an experience which has changed her entire world. "Since completing production, I have felt an enormous orchestral-shaped hole in my daily life," she tells GRAMMY.com.
Where other "music films" relish the big performances, the epic expression, TÁR presents unique look at the other side of musical creativity. As Lydia Tar, Blanchett gives the audience access to the innermost thoughts and feelings that occur in rehearsal rooms and practice spaces. With that unique vantage point, in a world where everything is inherently political, Blanchett and TÁR ask the audience whether they separate the art from the artist. The film, too, asks whether the artist can achieve that feat themselves.
Fresh off the national theatrical release of TÁR, the celebrated actor spoke with GRAMMY.com about how preparing for the film impacted her personal life, the unique communicative skill of the conductor, and the film’s complex study of power dynamics.
The phrase "losing yourself in the art" has almost become a cliche, without thinking about the emotional impact that that kind of commitment will have on an actor. Before you took on this role, did you think about what kind of impact it would have on your day-to-day life and your psyche?
I was ready and hungry for the opportunity to approach the ideas so dangerously alive in Todd Field’s screenplay, but I was unprepared for how much it would shift me off my axis in a wonderful and deep way. I have never had a static sense of identity — maybe that’s why I’m an actor. So I have never feared losing myself in anything.
However, this was such an immersive and electric project, I feel somehow newly minted by it. I’m still tingling from the intensity of it all. You are laid bare in ways through your work that you can’t fully comprehend, but that you should comprehend — and that is often deeply confronting.
What was your familiarity and interest in classical music coming into this project, and how has your understanding of it changed over time?
This was a deep dive for me. Prior to this project I was a classical music tourist. I fear I still very much am, but I needed to understand the map of the canon and the institutional wrestle to bring it into the contemporary listening experience in a way that was deep and authentic. Additionally, [I needed] to be able, as much as humanly possible, to understand the secret language of musicians and composers.
All I can say is, since completing production, I have felt an enormous orchestral-shaped hole in my daily life, so something has certainly shifted. To be honest, it’s hard to discuss as I’m still processing how to incorporate the deep aspects of the musical experience into my everyday life and work.
How did learning the intricacies in the language of music and composing differ from learning an accent or language for another project?
They are very similar processes. Technical and muscular at first, but then one has to throw away the homework and just converse. Music is a language after all, and as a conductor one gets to express umpteen lines simultaneously and bring them all together. What a powerful skill!
I loved the line in the beginning of the film where your character mentions that the only real discovery is in the rehearsal, never in performance. Does that sentiment resonate with you as an actor?
When I was at drama school, I adored rehearsal and felt too exposed by turning it all out in the performance. Over many years on stage, I have learned to relish the performance — the ephemeral, truly temporal nature of it all. The danger. I love the cut and thrust of being part of an ensemble in dialogue with an audience [that] gets to go out each night to discover something fresh.
The role and the film have a lot to do with power structures, something we don't always keep in mind when we are listening to music or watching a film. Do you think the film would have the same reception or focus if it weren't for its timing in regard to public reviews of people in power?
Art transcends politics, it transcends the quotidian, yet it can work through and beyond these boundaries whilst still touching on both experiences. That is its power. It does, as you suggest, transport us.
The film is, amongst many other things, an examination of power which is much more ancient and urgent than a critique of zeitgeist-y subjects like "cancel culture." I find it very hard to define this film. In fact, I’m loath to. I’d much prefer others to see it open-heartedly and discuss it amongst themselves.
Read more: 'TÁR' Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir On Making Music For A Film About Making Music
Obviously, you worked with a lot of musicians in this role, but how did you interact with Hildur Guðnadóttir's score?
It was integral to my understanding of the character. Lydia Tár is a composer in the midst of a composition while she is more celebrated as a conductor, but passionate about finding her voice in this form. The fact that she dedicates this piece to her daughter — the primal relationship in the film — is an indication of how central the composition is to the understanding of her emotional core. Hildur was alive to this and innately understood the performer vs. composer push and pull.
Was that something that was utilized while you were on set at all, or only something you discovered later?
We discussed what this composition should be at length in pre-production, as I wanted to fold its sound and ambition into my own preparation. I wanted to know what Lydia was reaching for. I also needed to know the piece as Todd had written several scenes where Lydia was returning to the piece, playing it, finessing it, obsessing over a misstep in the composition — finding herself in "pastiche."