Since being thrust into the spotlight in her Oscar-nominated turn as a young Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett has become the ‘go to’ girl at Oscar time, from The Aviator, Notes on a Scandal and I’m Not There to her new drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, in which she spans sixty years on-screen as Daisy a young dancer who falls in love with a man (Brad Pitt) who is born old and ages backwards.

How did it feel seeing yourself as an old woman?

It’s quite confronting seeing oneself age, not so much in age 86 but in the mid-year ranges because they do almost imperceptible things to your face with CGI and makeup to show you what you’ll look like in seven years time. It’ll be strange for my mother to see me as an old woman but it’s quite fascinating to see parts of me that reminded me of my grandmother.

How important was your dancing background to this character/

I had to give up dancing when I was young because I wasn’t that good, but if I had my time over and the talent, I would have loved to have been a dancer. When once can dispense with language and deal with gesture alone as modern dance does, that’s the art form for me but I didn’t have that gift so here I am an actor pretending to be a dancer! I loved the dancing aspect of the film and it obviously influenced a lot of how I informed a lot of Daisy’s physicality for me.

Why did you want to make this film?

I wanted to be involved in this film for three reason; one was David Fincher, one was Brad Pitt and the third was one of the final images of the film, where an old woman is holding a newborn baby in her arms and that baby is her life’s love, and that baby dies in her arms and it was at once a Pieta image and an F. Scott Fitzgerald strange image about the impossibility of love. It wasn’t the character so much; it’s rarely the character that draws me into a project.

How was it working with Brad again?

Brad is one of the easiest people to work with. He gets on really well with women, which is obvious but fantastic! It’s great working with people a second time because you immediately move through the boundaries of getting to know each other and get straight to the work and because Brad and David worked together before, the room was immediately open.

Is there an actress you really admire as a role model?

I love watching Bette Davis. I think she’s extraordinary. I watched All About Eve not that long ago and I watched Elizabeth and Essex again before I played Elizabeth both times and she’s fantastic. She is fearless and doesn’t ask you to like her. She’s funny, savage and a unique woman.

How much is luck also involved in your career?

So much is to do with timing and if you arrive with a film that hits an audience at the right time and they’re ready to embrace, and if it’s marketed well and it’s the right month and there is a zeitgeist about it, then that’s luck. But it’s also then luck that affords you an opportunity and I think the responsibility and the testament of who you are and what your creative ambitions are is what you do with that opportunity. I felt my lucky moment was being cast in David Mamet’s Oleanna opposite Geoffrey Rush at the Sydney Theatre Company, but Elizabeth was also a big gift for me.

What would you do if you could live life backwards?

I remember when I was at drama school and someone came to teach us who had been through the school and she became frustrated and said, ‘you don’t realize the opportunities you have at this school’ and I thought, ‘well, no, because we are 18!’ If you had the wisdom, would you take the risks?

Is there a dream role you still want to play?

Not really, but I do like the character of Lucy in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown as a musical, so if that came my way…

Do you see yourself directing in the future?

I see myself directing theatre but I don’t think I understand cinema and filmmaking well enough. You look at David Fincher and he has an innate understanding of performance and a meticulous understanding of the technology and process of making the film. I think I understand space and the iconography of the stage and what it means emotionally to stand downstage center as opposed to upstage left. Maybe it’s because I’m an actor and I’ve stood there myself, but that transition is easier to make for me.