Cate Blanchett, the two-time Oscar winning actress who has previously said that she was sexually harassed by producer Harvey Weinstein, said yesterday that the #Metoo movement sparked by his downfall: 'got killed very quickly.'

Blanchett, 57, was speaking at the Cannes film festival during an 'in conversation' event on Sunday.

On Saturday night she had turned heads on the red carpet in a custom Louis Vuitton black velvet dress featuring an embroidered, hand-made plissé collar, worn with diamond earrings from the same fashion house.

She said: 'The #Metoo movement got killed very quickly. There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say: 'This has happened to me.' And the so-called average woman on the street, the person on the street, is saying '#Metoo.'

'So why does that get shut down? What I'm just saying is that what it revealed is a systemic layer of abuse, not only in this industry, but in all industries. And if you don't identify a problem, you can't solve the problem, you shut that problem down, you shut that conversation down, you can't move on.

'I mean, I'm still on film sets and I do the head count every day and it is still, you know, there's ten women and there's 75 men every morning. I love men, you know, but what happens is the jokes become the same, you know. And you just have to brace yourself slightly, and I'm used to that, but it does get a bit boring.

'It gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogenous workplace, and I think it has an effect on the work. But I was so grateful to Thierry (Fremaux, Cannes festival boss) and to Alberto (Barbera, Venice festival boss) and all of the people who were leading the major festivals around the world signed to say that they would make a pledge to increase representation because it's better for audiences.'

During a wide-ranging conversation over 90 minutes, the actress revealed numerous plans to continue working, despite having announced in April 2025 that she was planning to retire from acting.

These include performing at the National Theatre in London from August to October in a new play Electra/Persona, making a docu-film about the American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and potentially joining the forthcoming film The Origin of the World by wunderkind Brady Corbet. He directed and wrote The Brutalist, Oscar-nominated in 2024. The Origin of the World is said to be a four-hour X-rated film, spanning 150 years of American history. Michael Fassbender and Selena Gomez are also in the cast.

In April 2025 she said: 'My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life'.

Blanchett, who has worked a number of times with convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, and also with Woody Allen, said that she had found it 'difficult' to deal with the reality of the behaviour of unnamed colleagues.

She said: 'I think when those things are made public it is very disconcerting if you have worked with someone or are working with someone who has behaved in ways that are reprehensible.

'There are a lot of secrets that we all hold that we don't tell one another and when those secrets become public it is somehow quite difficult to deal with. But I do think it is an internal question and I think it is how much a person is enabled to behave that way. You want to look at the circle of people around that person who are perpetuating that behaviour and also ask if someone who has genuinely atoned for that behaviour and changed their behaviour.

'Martha Stewart says if you stop changing you are through. She really, really believes in change and I am with her. I think people can change. And so I am much more of the school of being open to the possibility that people evolve.

'I know I have changed if I think back to things that I said and did when I was in my 20s.

You know we all do things that are foolish that we regret. It is what we do with that and if we double down and keep behaving in that way maybe it is time to stop working with that person. But if that person has atoned for it, in fact their work can become deeper, they can become richer and kinder and truer and more inclusive, then I think that is great.'