Cate Blanchett on playing Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There"
November 22, 2007

How many actors does it take to play Bob Dylan? In the case of Todd Haynes's new movie I'm Not There about the life of Bob Dylan, as fictionalized and portrayed by a variety of actors in different phases of Dylan's evolution, it takes six - Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, and Ben Whishaw. While some might consider Cate Blanchett to be most authentic version of Bob Dylan at the peak of his mainstream fame and darker drug days, no one can deny that taking on the life of Dylan would be a challenge for any actor.

Back in September, while doing press for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Cate Blanchett talked to the media about how she prepared to play the living legend that is Bob Dylan, which was based around one of the best documentaries of the past twenty years, "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."

Although the press conference for Elizabeth: The Golden Age was packed with journalists, Blanchett revealed that she hadn't seen so many microphones in one conference since she did press for I'm Not There. Despite the Bob Dylan related attention during The Golden Age conference, Blanchett elaborated on what struck her about the legendary singer's life, "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."

While I'm Not There taps into the many fascinating layers of Bob Dylan's evolution, Cate Blanchett revealed that the film does capture a specific reality within Dylan's creativity and hard-to-pin-down nature, "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."

Although the movie uses fictionalized elements to unravel the many complexities of Bob Dylan, Cate Blanchett was confident that the movie captures the essence of Bob Dylan through Dylan's own nature. Pulling double-duty on The Golden Age and I'm Not There at the same time, Blanchett revealed that switching gears to the Dylan project was a good break from the Elizabeth period piece, "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." As for her favorite Bob Dylan tune, Blanchett might not know all of of the songs in Dylan's musical arsenal, but admitted, "Oh God, it changes. I think 'It’s All Right, Ma', whatever that one’s called, I adore."

I'm Not There opened in limited release on Wednesday, November 22.