By Cate Blanchett Disclaimer Her role proved to be much more than an epic performance by a celebrated documentarian watching her life fall apart: She also learned how to debone a fish and tame cats.
It turns out that, in Alfonso Cuarón's AppleTV+ thriller, the animal friends of Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen's characters are integral to the show's layered symbolism. The cast, including Blanchett, Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline, Louis Partridge, Leila George and HoYeon Jung, spoke to the audience after screening the first three episodes of the program at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday.
The seven-part series follows acclaimed creative Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) and her wealthy husband Robert (Baron Cohen), whose lives are turned upside down when a book titled The perfect stranger it is sent to Catherine and, to her horror, reveals a secret of hers that she hoped had been long buried. At the same time, the couple becomes distracted by their directionless son, Nicholas (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee). The widowed teacher who published the book (Kline), seeking revenge following the death of his son Jonathon (Partridge), basks smugly in the light of the fire he has lit in Catherine's life.
It's also hard not to notice the performances of some secondary, non-human characters: Ravenscroft's cat, who regularly jumps in and out of the frame in Ravenscroft's elegant London home Disclaimeris the central couple. In a crucial scene, while Blanchett's character is boning a sole, we see her trying to argue with the misbehaving cat who is intent on making her life more difficult.
It might seem harmless, but Cuarón was very adamant about the cat and Blanchett soon realized its importance in the show.
“[I was like]why is the cat there? And then I understood,” Blanchett began. “I think it was in the shot where I had to debone a fish – they gave me lessons in deboning fish. My family ate a lot of fish during filming… But then, just when I managed to bone it properly, after doing some filming, [Cuarón] it's like, 'Put the cat in.'”
“Introducing an animal,” she turned to her director as she spoke, “exactly what you were saying is you can't control it. There is something evil in your desire… We think we have to control all of our lives, when, in reality, we are so enormously out of control. And everyone, we're so out of control in the world at the moment, and then you introduce an animal into these really controlled environments, and you've organized chaos the whole time.
“I thought it was a really interesting, really subtle way of constantly looking at these people [in chaos].”
Cuarón half-joked: “It was incredible to see Cate suffer. Taking the cat away, cooking, but never missing a beat in terms of the character to behave the way the character would. It was a pleasure for me.”
He continued: “I have to say, Cate broke the cat. The cat ended up doing what Cate wanted. The animal trainer was very upset because he said, 'It took me three years to teach this cat to go from A to B, and now the cat does what it wants.'” Blanchett later clarified that she was a animal lover home, revealing that he owns two cats, four dogs and six chickens.
As always, Cuarón and Blanchett took the opportunity to extol each other's genius, with the former saying, “Cate's involvement as an executive was… we often see a lot of credits that are just cosmetic. And Cate isn't. She was involved in every single casting decision, every single moment.
The cast was full of praise for the Rome AND Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director. “You often feel like you have to take a leap of faith when you work with people,” Partridge said. “So yes, [his] vote of confidence and see how meticulous you are with everything… It's a luxury that isn't afforded for every job.
The word meticulous came up often when actors referred to Cuarón's creative approach. “You will see when you get to the end of the show,” Blanchett added, “that Alfonso is absolutely meticulous and has a very clear vision.”
Disclaimer will premiere on AppleTV+ on October 11.