Cate Blanchett Reveals She's Had Relationships with Women "Many Times"

Cate Blanchett's latest film Carol premieres at Cannes on Sunday. In the film, which is based on Patricia Highsmith's 1953 novel The Price of Salt, Blanchett plays an older married woman who falls in love with a twentysomething department store clerk played by Rooney Mara.

WhenVariety asked Blanchett, 45, if this was her first personal experience with same-sex relationships, the actress responded, "On film - or in real life?" Blanchett added that she's had previous relationships with women "many times," but didn't reveal any more.

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However, Blanchett, who's been married to Andrew Upton since 1997, did openly discuss the struggles that go into making a film with two female leads, whether they're lesbian or not. "Midrange films with women at the center are tricky to finance. There are a lot of people laboring under the misapprehension that people don't want to see them, which isn't true," Blanchett said.

"I think there's been a critical mass of women who have reached a certain place in the industry," she noted, citing women such as Meryl Streep and Cinderella producer Allison Shearmur. "I want it to not be discussed anymore," she continued. "But it needs to be discussed."

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