Notes On A Scandal (2006)

Cate Blanchett as: Sheba Hart

Directed by: Richard Eyre
Selected Cast: Judi Dench, Andrew Simpson, Bill Nighy & Juno Temple
Written by: Patrick Marber (Based on the novel of the same name by Zoë Heller)
Release Year: 2006
Genre: Drama / Thriller
MPAA Rating: R

IMDb | Photos | Videos | ~~Official Site~~

The bitter, cynical and lonely Barbara Covett is a tough and conservative teacher near to retirement that is loathed by her colleagues and students. In the loneliness of her apartment, she spends her spare time writing her journal, taking care of her old cat Portia and missing her special friend Jennifer Dodd. When Sheba Hart joins the high-school as the new art teacher, Barbara dedicates her attention to the newcomer, writing sharp and unpleasant comments about her behavior and clothes. When Barbara helps Sheba in a difficult situation with two students, the grateful Sheba invites her to have lunch with her family. Sheba introduces her husband and former professor Richard Hart, who is about twenty years older than she; her rebellious teenager daughter Polly; and her son Ben that has Down’s Syndrome. Barbara becomes close to Sheba, but when she accidentally discovers that Sheba is having an affair with the fifteen year-old student Steven Connolly.

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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

“With Notes on a Scandal, it was the script by Patrick Marber, who I think is fantastic. And I’d read the book and thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ There’s a real lost vulnerability about Sheba that I thought might be interesting to play. The point of the story is not her relationship with the 15-year-old boy, it’s about this bizarre, enmeshed, fateful relationship between the two women. But morally I found it one of the most difficult things I’d done, in terms of how old was the actor going to be and what would his parents think about it? The actor was of age, playing younger than he was, obviously, but still there are discussions that one has to have. I was quite puritanical about it, which shocked me.” (Premiere, October 2006)
“I think it was very important for me to suspend my own moral judgment because there is no way to defend what Sheba has done. I don’t think that this film intends to do that at all. The main thing is that the relationship with Steven is the catalyst which propels her into Barbara’s arms and there lies the true drama and its delicious and thrilling side.” (PopEntertainment, February 2007)

Quotes from Others

Judi Dench on Cate Blanchett:
— “My reason for doing Notes on a Scandal was Cate. My admiration for her is just unbounded. I think she’s really phenomenal.”
— “When we came to work, I realized of course that Cate has a fierce intelligence, an unbelievable integrity. Her powers of concentration are phenomenal. Above all, she has a great sense of humour which I think is the most important thing to have and she is a phenomenal family person. The fact that she is working on something with an incredible intensity and at the same time can completely switch off and become a member of an incredibly close family with her children and her husband. When I saw her playing Elizabeth, it was one of those rare moments that I forgot I was watching an actress and I believed I was watching a real person who had actually lived and existed in history. I think Cate is the most extraordinary actress and I’m thrilled we did this movie together.”
— “In this world where celebrity trumps talent and where being a star seems far more important to many young actors thank taking part in a craft with a real tradition, Cate, God bless her, is an actress.”
Patrick Marber on Cate Blanchett:
— “[Cate Blanchett is] really smart, she’s got a very detailed understanding of what’s working for her and what isn’t. Her taste in her own performance is immaculate.”
Andrew Simpson on his audition:
— “I was going on a rugby tour to Australia on the Friday, and the casting director rang my agent and said they were going to try in Northern Ireland because they couldn’t find anyone in England. So I flew over to London on the Monday and auditioned for the senior casting director. Then they flew me back on the Wednesday and I auditioned for Richard Eyre and Patrick Marber. Then I went on tour and they rang and wanted me back, so they flew me back from Australia! And I did a screen test with an actress and then flew back out to Australia, finished the tour, came back and they wanted me back for another screen test with Cate Blanchett this time! Couple of weeks later I heard I got it.”
Andrew Simpson on working with Cate Blanchett:
— “For the screen test she was really nice. You had to sell yourself in half an hour and it was really nerve-racking. But after that, you could just talk to her about anything. I used most of the time to badger her about scenes and what I should be doing and how I should be doing it. Because I wanted to get the character right and I had my own opinions on it but I wanted to ask what other people’s take on it was.
She was really encouraging. The first days she was saying to me that if I had any problems I should come and see her. That proved invaluable. Especially on a set that you’re really not used to…And when you talk to her she’s one of the nicest people, so that dispels all the views you have of her as Cate Blanchett. She’s just a really nice person.”
Andrew Simpson on Judi Dench:
— “We were really close; we just hit it off. The first time I saw her she walked up and said, “I hear you did very well on your GCSEs.” The woman is just the nicest person I’ve ever met in this business. She was so nice to my dad; she chilled out with him for the whole time we were there. They just chatted. She chatted to me and gave me loads of advice. She asked me to her play over here; she wants to come over to Ireland. She’s just open and warm and lovely. No one deserves success more than her. She taught me a lot about life. I learnt focus from Cate but in terms of life and how to treat people, Judi was great.”

Quotes by Cate Blanchett’s character, Sheba Hart

Sheba Hart: “This is going to sound sick, but something in me felt… entitled. You know, I’ve been good all my adult life. I’ve been a decent wife, a dutiful mother coping with Ben. This voice inside me kept saying “why shouldn’t you be bad, why shouldn’t you transgress? I mean, you’ve earned the right.”
Sheba Hart: “What you say about me, about Richard – you’re not fit to shine his shoes. And Ben, and Polly, that I’d be happier without them. Why did you do it? Because I didn’t help you collect your cat? You’ve cost me my family!”
Barbara Covett (Judi Dench): “No, no, take some responsibility! I gave you EXACTLY what you wanted! You’d still be stuck in that marriage without me.”
Sheba Hart: “What?”
Barbara Covett: “You can’t accept it yet, but…”
Sheba Hart: “You think I wanted to be here with you?”
Barbara Covett: “You need me, I’m your friend!”
Sheba Hart: “You put me in prison, I could get TWO years!”
Barbara Covett: “They’ll fly by! I’ll visit you every week! We’ve so much life to live together!”
Sheba Hart: “You think this is a love affair? A relationship? What, sticky gold stars, and – and a strand of my hair? A sticker from Pizza Express? It’s a flat in the Archway Road and you think you’re Virginia frigging Woolf! And where did you get my hair? Did you pluck it from the bath with some special fucking tweezers?”
Barbara Covett: “You know it’s rude to read a person’s diary, it’s private!”
Sheba Hart: “We’re not companions! We’re not friends! You don’t even like me!”
Barbara Covett: “That’s not true, I only have tender feelings for you, only love!”
Sheba Hart: “You’re barking, fucking mad. You don’t know how to love. You have never, your whole life. Me, Jennifer Dodd. You’re nothing but waste and disappointment! You bitter old virgin. You’re lonely for a reason. They loathed you at school, all of them. I was the idiot who bothered, but only because no one told me you’re a fucking vampire! So what is it, Bar? You want to roll around the floor like lovers? You want to fuck me, Barbara?”
Barbara Covett: “Please don’t diminish our…”
Sheba Hart: “Our WHAT? What?”
Barbara Covett: “Give it back. I know you! Selfish and vain, you think you have a divine right! You don’t belong in the world, you belong here! You big baby!”
Barbara Covett: “Well, that’s when you should’ve stopped it.”
Sheba Hart: “I did! I told him I wouldn’t teach him any more. But he refused to accept it, he just kept coming back. It began to feel like our secret, and well, secrets can be… seductive.”
Sheba Hart: “So that’s your vicious father?”
Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson): “You wanted a sob story, I gave it to you. Made you feel like Bob Geldof.”
Sheba Hart: “You lied to me!”
Steven Connolly: “Ooooh, sorry, Miss! What, would you prefer it if I lived in a shithole?”
Sheba Hart: “And your mother?”
Steven Connolly: “I think she’s gonna pull through. What do you want? What’re you doin’ here?”
Sheba Hart: “When you started teaching, didn’t you want to give them a real education to help overcome… the poverty of their backgrounds?”
Barbara Covett: “Oh yes, of course. Bu one soon learns that teaching is crowd control. We’re a branch of the social services.”
Sue Hodge (Joanna Scanlan): Console yourself with the gems. That’s when it’s satisfying. Then you can make a real difference.”
Barbara Covett: “The rest is just cattle-prod and pray.”
Sheba Hart: “My father always used to say… you know, on the tube…’Mind the gap’.”
Barbara Covett: “Oh um…”
Sheba Hart: “I don’t know… it’s just the distance between life as you… dream it, and… life as it is.”
Barbara Covett: “I know exactly what you mean.”
Sheba Hart: “We never invited you to the fucking Dordogne!”
Barbara Covett: “I’m sorry, but you specifically said if I happened to be in France I should drop in.”
Sheba Hart: “We didn’t mean it!”
Barbara Covett: “Well, fine. I won’t come then.”
Sheba Hart [to his husband]: “Give me a minute, will you? I can handle this.”
Barbara Covett: “Oh, I’m to be “handled”, am I? Like toxic waste. You see me on sufference. I’m an imposition to be tolerated.”
Richard Hart: “You’re his teacher!”
Sheba Hart: “And you were mine! I’m not justifying. I’m not trying to justify it…”
Richard Hart: “You are so full of shit! It’s totally different. You were twenty!”
Sheba Hart: “He’s sixteen in May. He’s not some innocent…”
Richard Hart: “Of course he’s innocent! He’s fucking fifteen! Are you insane? If you meant to destroy us, why not do it with an adult? That’s the convention, it’s worked for centuries!”
Barbara Covett: “When I was at school, if one of us had had some bad news or was a bit down, we used to stroke each other. You know, someone would do one arm and someone else the other. It was a wonderful sensation. Did you do that at your school?”
Sheba Hart: “No.”
Barbara Covett: “It’s incredibly relaxing – for the giver and the receiver. Close your eyes. It doesn’t work if you don’t. That’s a good girl.”
Sheba Hart: “I think that’s enough.”
Barbara Covett: “No, close your eyes.”
Sheba Hart: “I really think that’s enough, Barbara.”

Trivia & Facts

Filmed in UK.
Judi Dench was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role while Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Patrick Marber received nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and Philip Glass for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards, more accolades here.
The film was released in US cinemas on Christmas Day in 2006.
Nicholas Hoult went through several auditions for the role that Andrew Simpson eventually played.
As of 2023, Cate Blanchett holds the record for an actress with the most appearances in a Best Picture-nominated at the Academy Awards: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Don’t Look Up (2020), Nightmare Alley (2020), and TÁR (2022).
As of 2022, Cate Blanchett holds the record for most Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Bandits (2001), The Aviator (2004), Notes on a Scandal (2006), I’m Not There (2007), and Nightmare Alley (2020).
Juno Temple’s first major film role and her first audition.
After the fight scene in Barbara’s home, Judi Dench said that she and Cate Blanchett almost the whole bottle of champagne bottle to celebrate the end of the scene, as both were worried and tense about having to fight each other.
The film is part of the Out of Competition line-up at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival and screened on 12 February 2007.
Cate Blanchett finished filming Notes on a Scandal (2006) on a Friday then on the Monday she was on set of The Good German (2006).