Disney(NEW YORK) — Cate Blanchett plays the wicked stepmother in the reboot of the film Cinderella, but when the two-time Academy Award winner was initially approached about the role, she had her doubts.
“When I was approached to be in this, I said, ‘It wasn’t a fairy tale that I actually gravitated towards,'” she admitted on Wednesday’s Good Morning America. “Because I found the central female character really passive.”
But Disney says this rendition of Cinderella isn’t that. In this live-action retelling of the 1950 Disney animated classic, Cinderella is loving and kind, but also smart and in control of her own destiny.
Once she was on board, Blanchett enjoyed playing the villain, describing it as “fantastic.”
“We get socialized out of all these mean, cruel things so you kind of have this vicarious experience through the villain,” Blanchett says.
Cinderella, starring Downton Abbey‘s Lily James in the title role and Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden as the prince, opens in theaters March 13.
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