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Cate Blanchett Responds to Conductor ‘Offended’ by ‘Tár’: ‘Power Is Genderless’

“It’s a meditation on power and power is genderless,” the Oscar-winning actor said.

Two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett pushed back on a real-life conductor’s criticism of her portrayal of the profession—after the musician slammed Blanchett’s latest movie, Tár, as “anti-woman” for its depiction of an abusive female conductor. “It’s a meditation on power and power is genderless,” the Australian actor told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, responding to a statement by Marin Alsop. “It is a meditation on power and the corrupting nature of power and I think that that doesn’t necessarily happen only in cultural circles.” Alsop, who is briefly name-dropped in the movie, said earlier this week that Tár “offended” her “as a woman… as a conductor… as a lesbian.” Blanchett said that Alsop, who she had the “utmost respect” for, was “entitled to her opinion,” but that Tár was “not a film about conducting,” and that she had drawn on many different sources to create the “non-literal” story. “I mean, [Lydia Tár] could just as well have been a master architect or the head of a major banking corporation,” Blanchett added.