Nine years later, we found Cate Blanchett at the press junket for Elizabeth: The Golden Age where she dished on everything from the new layers she learned about the real Queen Elizabeth I and returning to the character to playing Bob Dylan and landing a role in the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Crystal Skull.

Cate Blanchett on the challenges of wardrobe in The Golden Age:

"They were incredibly, incredibly heavy, and the underpinnings were something straight out of Comme De Garcons. The wonderful thing about Alex Byrne is that she invents form but somehow remains true to the character of the period that she’s designing costumes for the characters for. And I think a corset and the weight of the garments influence your carriage, the way you project. And also the wonderful thing it gives you too is it’s how close and how intimate you can get with the other characters, so it influences the frame, but I think that gives you a sense of boundaries. So the size of the skirt meant it would influence how intimate the scene could become."

Blanchett on returning to the character:

"I’ve revived characters onstage before and toured with characters, so I’ve played them repeatedly for a long time, but I’d never done it in a film and certainly never done it with such a length of time between it. So you’ve got enough time to decompress and regret every single choice you’ve ever made. So frankly the chance of returning to it seemed to be - I could prepare some things. And I think, in the end, what changed my mind was time because the film that I was interested in making was about the aging process. I think the Holy War backdrop is quite timely and interesting now. And I do - I think Shekhar’s sense of melodrama is so unusual in film that it’s incredibly fun to play."

On learning new layers of the real Elizabeth:

"Well, I’d done a lot of research the first time round, and I dipped into it again, obviously, because I’m fascinated by the period and by the woman. There’s been books written in the last eight, nine years about her since we - more letters found. I think, for me, the difference was how internal the turmoil was, the demons that were revisited and unearthed by her really accepting the entry point into the next phase of her life. So I think that was what I found most surprising, that given even the active, epic backdrop that Shekhar gives the film, the bulk of the film is quite interior."

Blanchett on walking a line between strength and vulnerability:

"I remember the first time I played the role, I watched this fantastic documentary called The Thatcher Years because I was fascinated. Obviously a very, very different ruler to Elizabeth the First, but the notion of somebody who had to also probably be more of a man than the men in order to survive in that environment. And I think where does the person lie underneath that? And as I said, obviously Margaret Thatcher was entirely different and had a much more negative impact on England than Elizabeth I did, but I was interested in who she was when she was in her privy chamber--so the difference between the public self and the private self. And also I think that’s the same when you meet the current queen. She has a very different speaking voice in person than when she speaks in public."

On the love triangle within the film:

"I always thought it was a little bit like Prospero sending Ariel out to gather information and have a set of experiences. But once Bess and Raleigh fall in love, then she has completely lost control of it. And I think it’s the notion of, which is documented in letters, that anyone who had a secret from Elizabeth - it really used to freak her out. So I think it was the fact that it was fine as long as she knew all about it. Then she could vicariously live through them because also I think you have to remember about Elizabeth I - and of course this is all supposition - I’ve read a few poems that she’s written, but still, in the end, your job as an actor is to, I suppose, invent the psychology because that’s the guessing work. No one ever knows. But her mother died when she was incredibly young, killed by her father, and she grew up not even knowing whether she was going to live and had to beg for her life from her sickly brother, who ascended the throne. And then her sister wanted to kill her. And so I think her notion of intimacy was incredibly violated from a very early age. And the notion of actually forming a marriage with anybody was quite a dangerous and unattractive prospect. And I think that must’ve led to somebody’s emotional life being atrophied, as an adolescent. And so I started thinking about what do you do, when you’ve got a woman - she would’ve been 52 at the time I was playing her - who’s still got an adolescent relationship to her sexuality, her physicality and the notion of male/female relations? So I think that was an interesting thing to play."

On the lack of a sexual element in the relationship with Bess:

"I think that women at those times had far more intimate relationships than they did with their husbands. Childbirth would’ve been terrifying, so it affects your relationship to your physical self. It was very, very complicated. And I think that those relationships she had with her lady in waiting - and I think, in reality, her longstanding lady in waiting was [Cat Ashley], who appeared in the - Emily Mortimer played in the first film, but they were very, very important relationships, as you saw with Mary Stewart and her ladies in waiting, who literally were risking their lives to deliver letters to her - for her."

On playing Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There":

"I don’t think I’ve had this many microphones since I did the press conference in the film for Bob Dylan. But I was preparing for that while I was on the last legs of Elizabeth, which was great because the filming of Elizabeth was incredibly intense. And so the - Dylan’s manager was very supportive of the project. And obviously I’d seen an incredible Scorsese documentary and had seen the excerpts he’d used of all the press conferences Dylan gave on that ’65, ’66 tour of Europe. And he got all the tapes to me in their entirety, the Paris press conference in Stockholm and the ones in England . And it was amazing to chart his journey of disillusionment and exhaustion through that tour. It’s the one time I’ve seen my husband jealous of me sitting this close to the thing, just glued to Dylan. It’s very difficult to play someone you’re in utter awe of."

Cate Blanchett's favorite Dylan song:

"Oh God, it changes. I think It’s All Right, Ma, whatever that one’s called, I adore."

Blanchett on the specigfic essence she captured of Bob Dylan:

"He’s a very, very elusive, mercurial performer and cultural figure, let’s face it. I think the film, as much as being about Dylan, is also about a creative life. There’s not a linearity to a truly creative journey, and I think the film really has that unusual, elusive form to it."

On her role in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

"I can’t say. I would be shot, and this room would be blown up, and all of our families would be terribly upset."

Cate Blanchett on her role in the The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

"Benjamin Button - I finished Benjamin Button, finally. It was the longest film I’ve ever done, with David Fincher and Brad Pitt, who’s a glory and extraordinary in the film. David showed me a cut-together version without any of the digital effects being done. And it was very, very -- Brad’s performance was very powerful."

Cate Blanchett on whether she's in awe when working with Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese:

"Every second of every day. It’s pretty amazing. It is an incredible - I sort of - you do have these moments every couple of months when you get a letter from somebody who’s seen something, or you're asked to work with a Scorsese or a Spielberg or, frankly, a Todd Haines, who I’ve been a longtime fan of. And they’re offering you a challenge that they think you can surmount. And I think, in the end, that’s probably why I say yes to things, because when someone like that throws down the gauntlet, you can’t let them down. They obviously think you can -- their belief in you is, in the end, what drags you through it."