Cate Blanchett is unsure if she would get “public permission” to star in Carol today.

The Australian actress portrayed Carol Aird in the 2015 film, which told the story of the forbidden affair between a woman going through a divorce and an aspiring photographer named Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara).

Reflecting on taking on the role during an interview for Vanity Fair, Cate noted that she doesn’t know if she would be cast as the lead in the same project in 2023.

“If it was made now, me not being gay – would I be given public permission to play that role?” she asked.

When pressed over whether she thought she should be able to play a member of the LGBTQ+ community, the 53-year-old commented, “I don’t know the answer to that.”

And as for playing a gay woman in her new movie Tár, in which she portrays fictional composer/conductor Lydia Tár, the star insisted the character’s sexuality wasn’t at the forefront of her mind.

“I don’t think about my gender or my sexuality. For me in school, it was David Bowie, it was Annie Lennox. There’s always been that sort of gender fluidity,” Cate continued. “I have to really listen very hard when people have an issue with it. I just don’t understand the language they’re speaking, and I need to understand it because you can’t dismiss the obsession with those labels – behind the obsession is something really important. But personally, I’ve never had it.”

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