Cate Blanchett likens her acting career to a ‘love affair’ that might be over

Cate Blanchett is thinking about breaking up with acting — again.

The actor, who’s Oscar-nominated for lead actress for her acclaimed performance in “Tár,” has been in the throes of an on-again, off-again romance with acting for more than 30 years. Now the Oscar nominee is reiterating sentiments she has shared before, and it may be the final curtain call for her acting career.

“It’s not occasional — it’s continual,” Blanchett said of her desire to quit acting in a Vanity Fair interview published Monday. “On a daily or weekly basis, for sure. It’s a love affair, isn’t it? So you do fall in and out of love with it, and you have to be seduced back into it.”

In February 2019, she sat down with Julia Roberts for Interview magazine and opened up about the less savory sides of her profession.

“As you get older, acting just gets more and more humiliating,” Blanchett told Roberts. “When I was younger, I would wonder why the older actors I admired kept talking about quitting. Now I realize it’s because they want to maintain a connection to the last shreds of their sanity.

“As I get older, I ask myself if I still want to submit myself to the shamanistic end of this profession and go completely into madness,” she added. “It’s the King Lear end of the spectrum of what we do, right? So I’m on the proverbial couch thinking, ‘Do I want to go that direction, or do I actually want to live a life?’”

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According to Vanity Fair, after “Tár” wrapped, director Todd Field suggested she take a break, but she didn’t. She jumped right into the Apple TV+ thriller “Disclaimer” and co-produced and starred in the upcoming Australian film “The New Boy.”

While Blanchett acknowledges she probably should have taken Field’s advice, she told Vanity Fair she’s finally going to rest. “I just said no to a couple of things. I think it’s time to be quiet.”