'Mrs America': Cate Blanchett played Phyllis Schlafly to figure out 'why so many women voted for Trump'
Cate Blanchett was on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' on Tuesday night. Joining in on the show in pajamas from her UK home, the actress encouraged Colbert to ditch his formal attire for plaid pajamas. She was on the show to speak about her role as Phyllis Schlafly on 'Mrs. America'.
On the character she plays on the FX show that just dropped on Hulu, she said, "The central premise of the plotline of the series is the fight over the equal rights amendments and Phyllis Schlafly was a terrifyingly brilliant grassroots organizer who mobilized a whole group of traditional housewives who felt marginalized by the feminist women movement and turned their fear of change into political power.
"She was an absolute force of nature and I didn't know anything about her until I saw this little old lady at the tail end of Trump's campaign and everyone stood up and I thought why is she so important. I later found out that Trump needed her mailing list and what drew me to the series, you know that deals with second rate feminism and the schism in traditional women's movement and the feminist women's movement, was trying to work out why so many women voted for Trump; and a lot of that how and why lies with Phyllis Schlafly and her army of supporters and so she got behind him."
Cate also revealed that all of her kids were at home for the Easter holidays and she was cleaning out the attic and was trying to find her elf ears and hobbit's feet from 'Lord of the Rings' to show her kids.
Instead, she found Torvill's fighting blades. "Why doesn't Evangeline Lilly have them?" asked a very surprised Colbert, and Blanchett quickly shoved the blades away saying, "You've never seen these and do not talk to Evangeline Lilly for some days."
She also has the 'Mjolnir'- Thor's hammer. "You know how that Thor film was shut down in Australia? it had nothing to do with the coronavirus" she added jokingly.
Since Cate has played the role of Bob Dylan in 'I'm Not There', Colbert thought it would be a good idea to seek her help regarding his beef with the singer.
"I wanted to do a parody of Subterranean Homesick Blues in response to Bob Dylan's album about the death of JFK and he will not let me do it. You got inside his head, you are a good enough actor to understand where he is coming from so why would he not let me do it ?" he asked.
Cate deduced that it might have to do with the use of the word "parody" and had he gone in with "I want to inhabit" intention, things might have turned differently.
"Words matter to Dylan," she said before Colbert exclaimed, "Damn poet".
They also discussed their favorite Bob Dylan lyric. While "Some of us are prisoners/ The rest of us are guards" from 'George Jackson' is Cate's favorite, Colbert loves, "My weariness amazes me / I'm branded on my feet" from 'Tambourine Man'
It was almost bedtime for Cate but before letting her go, Stephen went in for a little "customer feedback" and asked the actress as to how the experience felt like - being connected over a video call with no audience. She mentioned that it worked for her and "it's like watching 'Mash' without the laugh track, you get another layer to it"
"I am guessing if we were dependent upon audience laughter we wouldn't have dive so far into Dylan's lyrics," said Colbert in response.
