NYFF 2013: In command performance, Cate Blanchett makes awards case

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Actors Rooney Mara, left, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams attend the 51st annual New York Film Festival closing night screening of “Her.” (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)

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Actress Amy Adams attends the 51st annual New York Film Festival closing night screening of “Her.” (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)

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Actress Olivia Wilde attends the 51st annual New York Film Festival closing night screening of “Her.” (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)

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Actress Rooney Mara attends the 51st annual New York Film Festival closing night screening of “Her.” (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)

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Actress Tilda Swinton attends a screening of “Only Lovers Left Alive” during the 51st annual New York Film Festival. (Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)

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Director-actor Ralph Fiennes speaks onstage at the Gala Tribute to Ralph Fiennes during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images)

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Actress Parker Posey attends the “Dazed and Confused” 20th anniversary screening during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images)

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Actor Anthony Rapp attends the “Dazed and Confused” 20th anniversary screening during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images)

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Director-designer Agnes B. speaks during the New York Film Festival “Director Agnes B., “My Name Is Hmmm...” panal discussion during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Robert Redford attends the “All Is Lost” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. Redford stars as a man lost at sea in the adventure film. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actress Connie Britton attends the “All Is Lost” premiere at the New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actor Zachary Quinto attends the New York Film Festival screening of “All Is Lost.” Robert Redford is the sole actor in the J.C. Chandor movie.

(Charles Sykes / Invision / AP)

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Actor Bruce Dern and his daughter, actress Laura Dern, attend the “Nebraska” premiere at the film fest. Bruce Dern stars as Woody Grant in the movie. (Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images)

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Actor Will Forte attends the “Nebraska” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. Forte plays an estranged son in the film.

(Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and actress Lupita Nyong’o attend the “12 Years a Slave” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. Ejiofor stars in the new film by director Steve McQueen. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actress Sarah Paulson attends the “12 Years a Slave” premiere. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Director Steve McQueen and Madonna attend the “12 Years a Slave” premiere. (Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images)

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Actress Alfre Woodard attends the premiere of “12 Years a Slave” at the festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Kristen Wiig, left, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor attend the Centerpiece gala presentation of “The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images)

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Actor Adam Scott attends the Centerpiece gala presentation of “The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Mike Coppola / Getty Images)

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Actor Sean Penn attends the New York Film Festival premiere of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” (Charles Sykes / Invision/Associated Press)

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Actor Joaquin Phoenix attends the “Immigrants” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival City. (Robin Marchant / Getty Images)

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Actor Benicio del Toro speaks to the media at the premiere of “Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Director Fernando Eimbcke attends the premiere of “Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” at the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actors Mahat M. Ali, from left, Tom Hanks and Faysal Ahmed attend the opening night gala world premiere of “Captain Phillips” during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images)

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Actors Adam Driver, left, Naomi Watts and Charles Grodin attend the opening night gala world premiere of “Captain Phillips” at the New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actress Lindsay Duncan and actor Jeff Goldblum attend the “Le Week-End” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actor Bill Nighy, from left, filmmaker Richard Curtis and actor Domhnall Gleeson attend the “About Time” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Actress Isabelle Huppert, left, and director Catherine Breillat attend the “Abuse Of Weakness” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Taylor Hill / Getty Images)

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Cate Blanchett speaks onstage at the gala tribute to the actress during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)

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Actress Carey Mulligan attends the “Inside Lleywn Davis” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. (Evan Agostini / Invision/ AP)

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Actor Garrett Hedlund attends the “Inside Lleywn Davis” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. (Rob Kim / Getty Images)

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Actor John Goodman attends the “Inside Lleywn Davis” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. (Craig Barritt / Getty Images)

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Directors Joel Coen, left, and Ethan Coen attend the premiere of “Inside Llewyn Davis” at the New York Film Festival. (Evan Agostini / Invision/Associated Press)

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Chinese director Zhangke Jia, left, and his wife, actress Tao Zhao, attend a screening of “Touch of Sin” at the New York Film Festival. (Evan Agostini / Invision/Associated Press)

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Producer Marianne Bower, left, director Nancy Buirski and actor Michael Stuhlbarg attend the premiere of “Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq” at the New York Film Festival. (Jemal Countess / Getty Images)

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Magicians Penn and Teller attend the “Tim’s Vermeer” premiere during the 51st New York Film Festival. (Craig Barritt / Getty Images)

By Steven Zeitchik

Oct. 3, 2013 12:27 PM PT

NEW YORK — Cate Blanchett has played a queen, a dancer, a Russian villain and Katharine Hepburn. But she took a more direct approach on a stage Wednesday night being herself.

The “Blue Jasmine” star, who in the summer art-house hit plays a disgraced lady-who-lunches, was holding court at a New York Film Festival gala tribute. It’s an event that marks one of the award season’s early campaign stops and offers a key indicator of how a contender will do on the stump in the months that follow.

How did she do? As it turns out, really well. Blanchett had the room eating out of her hand for most of the one-on-one interview session with the festival’s Kent Jones, offering the kind of hybrid everywoman/actor-y turn that voters gobble up.

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She went mystical about her craft during some moments (on her stage and screen work: “It’s a bit like a dancer where you have an innate sense of where other actors are in space”), but also down-to-earth as she told stories about her young sons, who wonder why she doesn’t do more blockbusters (and also were struck why the doll based on her “Lord of the Rings” character Galadriel didn’t have underpants. “I wore underpants making the movie,” she assured them.)

She offered the requisite bits of honesty. “It’s always terrifying when you’ve been asked to bite off more than you can chew ... ’I don’t know how to do this, I don’t think I can do it,’” the Aussie actress said she often tells her agent. “There’s silence on the other end of the phone.” She finished, “Failure is very public and you have to wear it on the chin but that’s the adrenaline rush.”

Maybe most important, she had a kind of self-deprecating wit surprisingly rare among A-listers. Damon has it; Clooney does too (incidentally, both actors who Blanchett has acted and held her own against). But it’s not a long list.

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After a clip session ran through her key roles over the past 15 years, she laughed and said, “That was excruciating.”

After a video tribute to her from Woody Allen, she said “Are you sure that wasn’t meant for Kate Winslet?” (On talking to Allen about Tennessee Williams: “It was like asking him if he could speak Arabic fluently.”)

And she admits to being aware that she “disappointed” Katharine Hepburn fans playing the icon in “The Aviator,” but said, basically, what are you gonna do? “She died. She can’t play that role. I’m the ... who got the job.” She also did a brief but on-point Scorsese imitation.

The evening also took on a spontaneous moment. Early in the night Blanchett told a story about her first role, as a teenage extra while on vacation in Egypt, where she was promised a few Egyptian pounds and free falafel. The director barked through the megaphone, throwing her. “And the falafel never came, so I left.”

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Surprisingly, during the Q&A session, a woman at the front of the festival’s Alice Tully Hall stood up and said she was Egyptian and told her the director of that film felt bad about the incident. “You’re lying,” Blanchett said. The woman responded that he was in the room. Then a man rose from the back of the theater, calling out to the actress that he was indeed the director. “I’m sorry,” he said, as the crowd roared. “I turned out OK,” she deadpanned back.

Blanchett will likely have to work voters hard if she hopes to win her first lead actress Oscar. (A nomination is basically a foregone conclusion.) The challenge will be “Blue Jasmine’s” staying power. Summer movies have a hard time holding voters’ attention amid the flurry of fall films that follow. The last time someone won a lead actress Oscar for a movie that came out before September, in fact, was during the 2007-2008 season, when Marion Cotillard took the prize for “La Vie en Rose.”

Like then, Cotillard really wanted the Oscar, and she worked the circuit charming voters until they gave it to her. The same daunting challenge awaits Blanchett. Wednesday’s performance simply showed that she’s up to it.

ALSO:

Cate Blanchett channels Blanche in ‘Blue Jasmine’

‘Blue Jasmine:’ Woody Allen on regrets — he’s had a few

‘Blue Jasmine’ will get widest release of Woody Allen’s career

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