Cate Blanchett is obsessed with Sigur Rós and Sonic Youth

NME

NME quizzes 'Black Bag' stars Cate Blanchett and Tom Burke about their favourite albums – including classics from Depeche Mode, Talking Heads and more.

Transcript

00:00I watch her. I assume she watches me. I would do anything for you.

00:10Would you? Yes.

00:12Hi, I'm Alex from NME and today I'm joined by two of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors.

00:17It's Tom Burke and Kate Blanchett. How are we doing?

00:19Hi. Good.

00:21At the centre of Black Bag is the idea of lying and lies and secrets.

00:26And Kate, your character often has these conversations with her husband, played by Michael Fassbender,

00:31about when she would lie to him and if it's alright to lie to him.

00:36And she says only if she had to.

00:39So my question to you two is when is it okay to lie to someone?

00:43When you'd just be being brutal to not, I guess. I would say that's my benchmark.

00:49Yeah. I think truth is a lot about timing.

00:53And the truth is a very complex thing. You can distill it down to something which can be really brutal.

01:00But the truth, real truths, are very complex.

01:03And sometimes if you reveal a bit of information to somebody, particularly someone you're incredibly close to,

01:09it could be compromising for them, particularly in the world of Black Bag.

01:12But it could also be unhelpful.

01:15So if you're deeply in love with somebody,

01:18I think they have to trust that you've got a good judgement on when you're going to say things and when you're not going to.

01:23Are lies integral to the success of a good marriage?

01:27There's a line in a play I did which was,

01:29the more we say, the more the unsaid becomes an agony.

01:33Right.

01:34Like you can get into a bottomless pit with all that.

01:39I'm obsessed with the idea of the Black Bag in this film.

01:42And you want one.

01:43I do, definitely.

01:44And I was thinking, actually, when I was preparing for this interview,

01:47is there an interview question that each of you have been asked a million times

01:51that you would love to just be Black Bag every time it came up?

01:54What do you mean generally or in relation to this film?

01:57To your career, because you must get asked the same questions over and over and over again.

02:00How do you balance your work life and your family life?

02:04Oh, really?

02:05As if it's even possible.

02:08I don't even want to say mine.

02:10Because people will keep asking you to see what there is.

02:13Do you have a favourite line from this film that your character gets to say?

02:16I do, actually.

02:17It was added later and it's as I'm right at the end,

02:21as I'm trying to get Marisa out from the table,

02:25I say, we need the rug.

02:28Darling, we need the rug.

02:29Darling, we need the rug.

02:31What about you, Kate?

02:32I always loved when I got the chance to say the words Black Bag.

02:36You know, because if you turn the sound down,

02:39one of the sexiest words you can say is faluka.

02:42It just does a great thing with your lips and I think Black Bag does the same thing.

02:47How did you work that out, faluka?

02:49Being very drunk in Egypt.

02:51And actually, talk to me a bit about shooting those dinner scenes,

02:53because I've done interviews before where we've talked about it

02:56and they've always said the hardest thing is that you have to pretend to eat the whole time

03:01because you can't spend a whole day eating, you're so full.

03:04What is the most difficult part about filming those meal scenes?

03:07Well, that was okay for me because I knew that the food was laced with a drug

03:12that Catherine didn't want to eat, so I didn't have to eat.

03:15I felt I needed to be seen to eat more than anyone else of the chana masala,

03:20but luckily nobody else was eating an awful lot of it, so that helped.

03:24And of course you had the hand scene as well.

03:26Yeah.

03:27Tell me about filming that.

03:29Well, I was looking forward to that for all kinds of reasons, but yeah.

03:36Suddenly there's a lot more people involved at that point, you know,

03:39to get it all looking right and you've got to set it up.

03:44That's popped my top.

03:46I'm getting so excited.

03:47I thought I'd said something incredibly surprising.

03:49Yeah, you did. Chana masala.

03:51Yeah.

03:52That's the code word. Get your clothes off, get your kit off.

03:55That's a totally different interview.

03:57Who's the suspect?

03:59Your wife.

04:02I can feel when you're watching me.

04:05Sorry.

04:06I like it.

04:08When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything,

04:11how do you tell the truth about anything?

04:13So Enemy is a music magazine, as you know.

04:16So we ask everyone we interview,

04:18what is your go-to album that you've gone back to over and over again?

04:22If you had to pick one, it would always be that.

04:24I think for me it would have to be something Sigur Rós.

04:28Really?

04:29It would probably have to be something, yeah.

04:31When did you first discover Sigur Rós? Do you remember?

04:33Oh, God, I don't know, when they popped out.

04:35I only saw them in Sydney when I was there.

04:37Yeah. I saw them in Iceland.

04:40But, yeah.

04:41And I remember I saw Sonic Youth play when I was in Toronto.

04:46This is all years ago.

04:48And I loved their music,

04:50but I became addicted to it when I heard it live.

04:54Because I think when people make beds of sound like that,

04:58it goes into you in a visceral way that you can't get in a recording.

05:03The layering of the sound.

05:05You feel like it's got church.

05:07Have you ever managed to meet Kim Gordon or Thurston Moore?

05:09Yeah. Not Thurston, but I've met Kim.

05:12I'd say either Violator, Depeche Mode,

05:16or Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads.

05:18Have you managed to see either of those bands live?

05:20No, I haven't, actually.

05:21I went to the remastered Stop Making Sense film at the IMAX,

05:26and I was like, I could go to this every week,

05:28or maybe once a year or something.

05:31NME did a special on the new Bob Dylan film.

05:34Oh, right, yeah.

05:35But as, obviously, you played Bob on screen,

05:39have you managed to see Timmy's performance yet?

05:41Yeah. I thought he was fantastic.

05:43I really loved the whole film.

05:45It was a very, very different endeavour to Todd Haynes' film,

05:50which was about shape-shifting identity,

05:54and, in a way, an artist's refusal to be pinned down.

05:58And I've never been more liberated than being asked to play

06:02so wildly against type and gender.

06:05And I think, in a way, because you knew that there was a woman

06:10inside probably the most iconic silhouette of Dylan

06:13when he went electric,

06:15you were complicit with the audience in it,

06:19and so there was no way that you'd ever be accused of mimicry

06:23or anything like that was really liberating.

06:27Would you kill for me, George?

06:31Would you?

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