A few weeks ago, we discussed Cate Blanchett’s Vogue Australia cover and some early excerpts. The cover is… odd. I still think it’s weird. Cate doesn’t look like Cate. She looks like Elizabeth Banks to me, but some of you got Robin Wright vibes. Anyway, I didn’t think the interview was all that noteworthy, quite honestly. I expect more from Cate, although she’s not really famous for giving amazing interviews, preferring instead to keep some mystery about her life. But some new quotes came out, and Cate is talking about the female audience and the market is changing.

Cate Blanchett recently spoke to Vogue Australia about gender inequality in Hollywood, giving her opinion on how women’s roles are changing. Interviewer Anna Funder asked Blanchett, “Tina Fey wrote in Bossypants that any woman in Hollywood who’s no longer considered f–kable is ignored. In the era of Judi Dench and Meryl Streep and other actresses we love, can this really be true, or are they exceptions?”

“Female audiences are driving the change, I think,” responded Blanchett. “Women don’t stop consuming cultural product once they stop menstruating.”

Funder spoke with Blanchett about people being surprised to learn about the wage equality gap for women. “People were surprised?” said Blanchett, “There are countless industries around the world where women in top positions are not equally remunerated for equal work.”

[From Vogue Australia & THR]

I think that’s a good quip – “Women don’t stop consuming cultural product once they stop menstruating” – but the problem is actually worse than that. Cate is right to a certain extent that young women (or girls, really) are being targeted by Hollywood with franchises like Twilight and The Hunger Games. But what about those young women on the cusp? Where are the quality films for a woman of 20, too old for Twilight and the like? The superhero films from Marvel and DC are so clearly aimed at guys aged 12 to 60. But what do the ladies have once they’ve outgrown the PG-13 rated films?

Oh, and Cate wants a part on Downton Abbey’s final season. She’s serious about it too – she says that she’s spoken to some of the Downton people AND her agent about doing a guest role. My opinion: Paul Giamatti was so bizarrely cast, surely they can make room for La Blanchett.

Photos courtesy of Vogue Australia.