Cate Blanchett shares why she thinks award shows shouldn’t be televised

Cate Blanchett is getting real about why award shows should no longer be televised.

During a recent appearance on the “Las Culturistas With Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang” podcast, the 55-year-old actress discussed what it was like moving through the world as a public person, noting that with the invention of smartphones, there are “so few spaces that you can go now, where you are private” without worrying if someone is recording.

“That’s what I loved about the late ’80s [was] going to all of the dance parties in Sydney for Mardi Gras. People were just there,” she explained. “They were so present, you know, they were just together, collectively, having a great time. It was non-aggressive. No one was being recorded. No one cared what anyone did.”

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Hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers agreed with Blanchett, with Yang bringing up the current trend on TikTok where lip readers will post videos claiming to know what celebrities are saying to each other at award shows. 

Blanchett and the hosts agreed the new trend feels “treacherous,” pointing out that certain celebrities have begun to cover their mouths when speaking on the carpet to avoid potentially being the subject of one of those videos.

“I mean, I say, I know it’s blasphemy, go back to the day when it wasn’t televised,” Blanchett said. “Bring that back and just have a great party where people can just let go. I mean the industry is so scattered and at such a point…which I think potentially could be exciting or could really be depressing, but it’s at a pivot point, and so we need to gather together and celebrate what it is that we do, without it having to have any public-facing.”

“I mean, the fashion is great, and all of that stuff. We’ll find out in the end who won or who didn’t win. But it would be so nice that that happened behind closed doors. [It would be] absolutely a very different evening.”

— Cate Blanchett

The very first Academy Awards took place in May 1929, but it was not televised until the 25th ceremony in 1953. Since then, audiences worldwide have tuned in to see which of their favorite stars takes home the night’s biggest awards.

Blanchett has won two Oscars herself, one for her supporting role in “The Aviator” in 2005, playing Katharine Hepburn, and another for her leading role in “Blue Jasmine” in 2014. She has also received six additional nominations in both the supporting and lead categories.

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“I mean, the fashion is great, and all of that stuff. We’ll find out in the end who won or who didn’t win,” she added. “But it would be so nice that that happened behind closed doors. [It would be] absolutely a very different evening.”

The actress later clarified she is all for still having award shows, noting “it’s so great that people’s work is celebrated and in that way,” but that the current system can often lead people to “get sick of” some of the films nominated that year.

“This is the thing, all of these films are amazing, and so many amazing films and performances and all of the craft awards and the cinematography,” she explained. “You want to celebrate them, but you can get sick of those films because they all get whittled down, as they must. I don’t want to get sick of any of those films because they’re brilliant.”

This is not the first time Blanchett has spoken out about her issues with awards shows. When she won the Critics’ Choice Award for best actress in a drama for her lead role in “Tar” in 2023, she used part of her acceptance speech to call the system a “patriarchal pyramid where someone stands up” in front of a room full of their peers.

She then referred to the whole affair as “a televised horse race,” and suggested they instead acknowledge that “there’s a whole raft of female performances that are in concert and in dialogue with one another.”

“Because can I tell you, every single woman – whether it’s television, film, advertising, tampon commercials, whatever – you’re all out there doing amazing work that is inspiring me continually,” she said.