Cate Blanchett, the new Katharine Hepburn

The nickname of "The Great Kate" use to solely belong to Katharine Hepburn. However, Cate Blanchett is quickly racking up some amazing performances. It may not be long before you may have to specify which "Great Kate/Cate" you are referring to.

Cate Blanchett and Katherine Hepburn tend to play/played strong women. Each has played British Queens early in their careers. Hepburn played the title role in Mary of Scotland, 1936. Cate Blanchett first caught the movie going world's eye with her Oscar nominated performance in Elizabeth. She had been acting for years on stage, television and movies. This role won her a Golden Globe and plenty of fans, particularly in her home country of Australia, where she was named Australian of the year in 1999.

She has a distinguished look. She is not beauty queen pretty, but neither is she ugly. She has a regal, proud face that speaks confidence with out uttering a word. Much like that other Kate, Cate Blanchett has a great screen presence that does not rely on sex appeal.

Geoffrey Rush worked with Cate on the stage in Hamlet and David Mamet's Oleanna as well as on screen in Elizabeth. He described Blanchett this way; "She's chameleon-like, yet at the same time she's sexy and glamorous and occasionally gawky."

As The Lord of the Ring's Galadriel, Blanchett stole every scene she was in. So effervescent and goddess like is her Galadriel that you can't force your eyes away from her. Galadriel has a small part in the trilogy, yet her presence is felt long after she is off the screen.

Although a very serious, dramatic actress, Blanchett told "Vogue" magazine that part of the reason she took the role of Galadriel was that it was "...a territory I've never stepped into before technically." She also was quoted by Darkhorizon.com as saying she took the role for another reason. "I basically did it so I could have the ears. They were so sweet, because they actually made little bronze castings of my ears. I loved all of that stuff."

She went from playing a British Queen in Elizabeth to a 1950's upper class yank in The Talented Mr. Ripley. She does accents better than Meryl Streep. She had an Irish one for Veronica Guerin and a Midwest American accent for The Missing. "...accents are a part of the transformation of character." she told Andrew L. Urban, of "The Bulletin" in 2000. "I love that way of finding someone's internal psychology...through external things like vocal patterns."

Blanchett has more accents in store for her audience. This year she costars with Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's, The Aviator. She will be doing a New England upper class accent. For you see, the great Cate Blanchett plays the great Katharine Hepburn. I can't imagine better casting.