Cate Blanchett denied on Sunday a report she’d had affairs with women as the Cannes Film Festival swooned over her portrayal of a wealthy married woman who falls in love with an ambitious New York shopgirl in director Todd Haynes’s “Carol”. The film, which has won rave reviews from critics and audiences, shows Blanchett’s title character and Rooney Mara as the shopgirl Therese Belivet having an affair that includes making love in a motel “presidential suite”. Blanchett at a news conference was quick to contradict the published version of an interview she gave to the trade publication Variety in which she appeared to say she brought personal experience of affairs with women to the role.
“Carol” follows hard on the heels of the graphic “La Vie d’Adele” (Blue is the Warmest Color) about a lesbian affair, which won Cannes’s top Palme d’Or prize two years ago.
