Cate Blanchett is one of the biggest stars to come out of Australia and over the course of her long career, she’s taken the entire world by storm. Almost 30 years ago, however, she was still fighting her way to the top of the entertainment industry. Though we recognize her today by her eye-popping cheekbones and platinum blonde hair, Blanchett looked entirely different as a young woman in her 20s.
Cate Blanchett As We Know Her Today
Though today she has one of the most easily recognizable faces in the world, even huge fans of Cate Blanchett would have a hard time recognizing her in the early 90s when she was just getting her start as an actress. Blanchett began her acting career almost by accident. After dropping out of the University of Melbourne after only a year, Blanchett took some time to travel the world.
While in Egypt, she was asked to play an American cheerleader as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie Kaboria. Since she needed some extra cash, she accepted. The experience apparently inspired her to get back into school, though this time around she didn’t study economics and fine arts. She enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art after returning home to Australia and working in several small theaters, graduating two years later.
Blanchett’s Earliest Red Carpets
By 1992, Blanchett was a familiar face in the theater circles. She spent the next five years continuing her theater career while also appearing on Australian television shows. Her first feature film came in 1997 when she was cast in a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese army in Paradise Road, which also starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Blanchett’s career continued to grow, slowly but surely, with her biggest break yet coming two years later in 1999.
Blanchett’s First Red Carpet
That year, she starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. For her role in the film, Blanchett scored a BAFTA nomination, which was her second overall. Following that success, Blanchett notched another win for her career after being cast as the elf queen Galadriel in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The incredibly popular franchise boosted Blanchett to superstardom, as did her following projects The Good German, Babel, and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, with the latter two also co-starring Brad Pitt.
Before She Was Famous
Before all of that success, however, Blanchett was just another young woman trying to make an acting career for herself. In this photo, taken during an event in Sydney, Australia in 1994, Blanchett poses with fellow Aussie actor Aaron Pedersen and another man named Shane O’Connor. Blanchett looks refreshingly fresh-faced and young, and though the years have definitely been kind to her, it’s almost hard to recognize her at this age. Not because she’s aged so much, but because the features we recognize best, her apple-like cheeks, are nowhere to be found. She looks like an entirely different person!
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