Cate Blanchett as: Charlotte Gray

Directed by: Gillian Armstrong
Selected Cast: Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones & Helen McCrory
Written by: Jeremy Brock (Based on the novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks)
Release Year: 2001
Genre: Drama / Romance / Thriller / War
MPAA Rating: PG-13

IMDb | Photos | Videos | Official Site

Charlotte, a young Scottish woman, who has studied in France, is living in London during World War II. Within weeks she both falls in love with a young pilot and is recruited by the Secret Service to act as a courier for the French Resistance. However her mission behind enemy lines becomes a personal mission to find her lover who has been shot down. Assigned to a Communist Resistance group she encounters acts of betrayal from sometimes unexpected sources, but meets the violence of war and her own disappointment with hope…

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Behind the scenes; ArtworkRelated Videos

Quotes from Cate Blanchett

• “For me, what makes her [Charlotte Gray] wonderful to play is that she’s a flawed heroine. Her original reasons for going to France are incredibly impure. She has this strong Calvinistic sense of fate and duty, but it turns out she’s also on a mission to discover herself. So it’s the one chance to save her own soul and find value in her life.” (The Ottawa Citizen, December 2001)

Quotes from Others

• Producer Sarah Curtis on wanting to cast Cate Blanchett
  — “We were absolutely unanimous that it had to be Cate.”
• Billy Crudup
  — “I actually became extremely self-conscious, because you know how good her work is, and you begin to wonder why yours isn’t as good! But more often than not, I think what you find is that it forces you to elevate your own skills. And that was one of the primary reasons I wanted to be in Charlotte Gray. Because Cate is an actress that I admire a great deal, and I felt like it was an opportunity for me to learn from what she does.”
• Rupert Penry Jones, on who else has sex appeal apart from his own girlfriend
  — “Cate Blanchett. She’s exquisitely beautiful and a lovely lady.”
  — “She’s superb. I completely fell in love with her. Actors at that level are so perfectly tuned. It’s silk.”

Quotes by Cate Blanchett’s character, Charlotte Gray

• Psychiatrist: Of these three, which in your view is the most important: Faith, hope or love?”
  Charlotte Gray: “Hope.”
• Charlotte Gray: “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
  Julien Levade: What?”
  Charlotte Gray: “My name: Charlotte Gray.”

Trivia & Facts

• Filmed in France, England, and Scotland.
• Cate Blanchett previously worked with Gillian Armstrong in Oscar and Lucinda (1997).
• Cate Blanchett was author Sebastian Faulks’ only choice to play Charlotte Gray.
• Cate Blanchett was on stage with Plenty (1999) when she was offered the role.

Press conference, 15 November 2001; Cate Blanchett with Nancy Wake, the WWII spy said to have inspired the character Charlotte Gray, at the London premiere, 19 February 2002