Blue Jasmine (2013)

Cate Blanchett as: Jasmine “Jeanette” French

Directed by: Woody Allen
Selected Cast: Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, and Michael Stuhlbarg
Written by: Woody Allen
Release Year: 2013
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13

IMDb | Photos | Videos | Official Site

Jasmine, a former New York socialite teetering on an emotional tightrope, balancing between her troubled east coast past and a fresh start in San Francisco. Having moved into her sister’s humble apartment, Jasmine ricochets between the tumultuous acceptance of her new limitations, and the dreams of reclaiming her past life’s glamour.

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Behind the scenesRelated Videos

The second video is a playlist of selected interviews and conversations with Cate Blanchett, just click on the playlist icon on the upper right to see the other videos in it.

Quotes from Cate Blanchett

“There’s a tragedy to her clinging onto those threadbare things – a bit like Blanche DuBois, trying to make herself as attractive and alluring as possible. Like Blanche, she has such a romanticized sense of self. Because of the internal pain, sometimes it’s easier to exist in a world of fairy lights and fantasy. One of the primary industries in America is fantasy, and so there’s a naivety behind that. And I think that makes Jasmine an anti-hero of her time in her way.
Jasmine is a woman without any agency, without any autonomy, she’s given that away to her husband, and that’s what makes her current today – even in this post-feminist world. There are a lot of women out there who have given their power away to their husbands, to their brothers, to their fathers and the only way that they can see a way of getting themselves out, or reinventing themselves, is to attach themselves to another man. It’s very sad.” (Vogue, September 2013)
“For a lot of women clothes don’t reflect who they are – but who they want to be. The wardrobe of my character in Blue Jasmine is the last vestige of her former life as a wealthy lady. She loses everything when her husband’s shady business is exposed, and I spent a lot of time thinking about which clothes she would hide from the feds. I knew she would keep her channel jacket. It might be somewhat frayed, but she needed to use it as a mask.” (W Magazine, January 2014)
“The Hermès bag I was carrying was more than the whole budget, and there I was, throwing it on the sidewalk again and again. I felt her [Suzy Benzinger] blood pressure go up every time it hit the pavement… We borrowed it. But the waiting list for those bags is decades. You’re in the wheelchairs before they arrive. I think we borrowed the PR girl’s bag, but I didn’t find out until I’d thrown it on the sidewalk for the seventh time.” (Harper’s Bazaar UK, November 2013)
“Without wanting to sound too pompous, when acting works, when performance works, when theater’s great, when films connect — whether it’s a piece of profound satire or a work of great drama — it expands what it means to be human. It expands our ability to be compassionate, I think. So, I think I have a greater compassion for women like Jasmine. In that way, yes, it will definitely stay with me. In terms of an experience, it was pretty bloody special.” (New York Times, February 2014)

Quotes from Others

Sally Hawkins:
— “I was lucky enough that our wonderful costume designer got me out to New York early to do the prep. So I had a few weeks in New York prior to going out to San Francisco, which was invaluable to me especially because Cate happened to be there at that time performing onstage. And she was so generous with her time, even though she was performing onstage to great accolades, and was incredibly tired during the day performing night after night on Broadway. The first time I saw Cate was onstage during Uncle Vanya. We spent some time in New York with the dialect coach, unraveling the text and figuring out their childhood and where they started from — which was key to me.”
Woody Allen:
— “I mean, she’s Cate Blanchett, what can you do? You hire her and get out of the way.”
Suzy Benzinger:
—“We had a Valentino strapless dress for the cocktail party scene, but Cate did not want to wear it. She felt she didn’t do service to the dress. She said, “I just think Jasmine would be more beautiful in this,” meaning the Carolina Herrera. There is something you should know about Woody’s crews. They’ve worked with him for years, and they’ve seen it all. They’re not interested in what an actress has on.
But the day Cate Blanchett walked on set in that Carolina Herrera, I had a gaffer come up to me and say, “I’ve never seen a woman look more beautiful in my life.”
Sophia Loren (from her memoir):
— “I was struck by the last scene in Blue Jasmine, where Cate Blanchett has an expression on her face I’d never seen before. That expression crept inside me, and it lies there waiting to germinate a new plant, a new flower.”

Trivia & Facts

Filmed in San Francisco, CA and New York City.
The film had its premiere in New York on 22 July 2013 and in Los Angeles on 26 July 2013.
The film grossed $99.1 million worldwide against a budget of $18 million.
The only actors to receive the full screenplay for the film are Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins.
For her role as Jasmine French, Cate Blanchett won her second Academy Award, this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her first Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) is for her performance as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004).
Cate Blanchett also won third BAFTA, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Cate Blanchett is the first actress to win the three major film critics awards (New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics) for leading role twice — for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013) and for Todd Field’s TÁR (2022).
Cate Blanchett was on stage with Uncle Vanya (2010-12) in New York City while preparing for the role. She and Sally Hawkins, who was called early in New York for costume fittings, would meet to talk about the background of Jasmine and Ginger as sisters which helped them inhabit their characters.
Many critics and audience thought that the film is loosely based on Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Cate Blanchett played Blanche DuBois on stage which toured from Sydney to Washington D.C. and New York City) but Woody Allen has said that the idea for the film came from his wife.
The New York Times reported that the costume department has a budget of $35,000 but one would not think that at first glance since Jasmine wears many designers’ pieces in the film.
Some of Cate Blanchett’s costumes are bespoke pieces like the Chanel bouclé jacket.
Jasmine’s Louis Vuitton luggage is written into the script. In the beginning, Louis Vuitton was reluctant to lend the luggage since they want to see the script first, but with the help of Cate Blanchett they finally approved.
Costume designer Suzy Benzinger used her, Woody Allen, and Cate Blanchett’s connection with these fashion houses: Hermès, Roger Vivier, Carolina Herrera, Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Alberta Ferretti, Prada, Michael Kors, Fendi, Chanel, to supplement the film’s costumes.