Cate Blanchett on Learning How to Work on Digital with Fincher

Cate Blanchett is one of a handful of actresses who is known and recognised for her talent and resume. Just like Tilda Swinton, she has been offered a wide range of roles in both genders, and has worked with a long list of high profile filmmakers. From Steven Spielberg, to Woody Allen, Peter Jackson to David Fincher.

During a 20 minute conversation that went full speed, Blanchett talks about her experience working with David Fincher on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The film was one of the first big production to be shot entirely on digital.

Blanchett talks about -and confirms- Fincher’s reputation of being a demanding filmmaker with a singular vision (there’s worth, as a reputation).

Here is what she says:

“That was tough, actually. It was really tough. We were the first crew in film to go into New-Orleans after Katerina, so it was a quite allureless environment. It was quite a scary place, there was six shootings I think in the first few days that we were there and obviously my children were with me, and it was quite unsettling and Fincher does, you know, “He of the 197 takes”. And there was a lot of prosthetic so often you would wake up at 4 in the morning and you think “Ok, a regular human being will have you finish at 6 or 7 at night” but you find yourself sometimes at 11 still working.

But it was astonishing because he is meticulous but also so engaged as a director and it was the beginning of that digital process… One of the strongest memories I have is getting used to — I’m gonna really date myself now, but getting used to the different rhythm that one has when one works with film, literal film in the camera, when you’ll do one maybe two takes and you’ll stop, you’ll decompress, you’ll reload, you’ll probably chat to the focus puller, you have a chat with the director, and then you’ll wind up and do another take.

Whereas with this, we would just go, and go, and go, and go and go, and so I felt quite cultish actually at the beginning of the process, because it was an entirely new way of working. And so it’s perfect for him because – I think the most takes I did was probably 36, but you know you would go through a dip where you would all lose your way but come back and you would find a different type of rhythm. And also watching him really invent the way that you light digital. (…)

Fincher knows how most people are going to consume the work and so he’s lighting and shooting for the correct medium. It was a very important and big privilege for me to have that sort of ability right there to learn how to work on digital.”

Side bonus for those who are curious, ASC wrote a nice piece on Claudio Miranda, who shot Benjamin Button, which was only his second feature film at the time, which is pretty crazy when you think about it. (Miranda won Best Cinematography for Life of Pi the year things turned ugly for VFX Studios)