‘Cate is everybody’s benchmark’

...says rooney mara who shares the screen with the actress in the academy award nominated film Carol

Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett and the talented Rooney Mara will be seen together in Todd Hayne’s Carol that’s slated to release in India at the end of this month. An adaptation of The Price of Salt — a Patricia Highsmith novel — the film tells the story of a young aspiring photographer and her relationship with an older woman going through a difficult divorce. Rooney, who plays Therese Belivet in the film, shared her experience of working with her veteran co-star, how the film takes on sexuality and more. Excerpts from an interview:

Cate in a recent interview spoke of how, for her, the film is more about falling in love and that the sexuality and gender issues are very secondary. Is that how you felt too I think that’s how we all felt. At the core, it’s a love story between two humans. Yes, they are women, but there’s also a lot of other elements working against them besides the fact that they are two women. It’s not a political film in any way, it has no agenda, is in no way preachy. And because of that, it really allows the audience to go into it without any defenses up, and they can experience these two people falling in love.

Do you think the film has the power to change perspectives of viewers who aren’t particularly accepting of same-sex relationships It has a shot, because we are not telling people what’s right or what’s wrong. There’s a lot there for people to see a part of themselves in. There’s so much about Therese that girls that age will be able to relate to and there’s so many things about Carol that women that age would be able to relate to—about being a mother, going through divorce.

You said in a recent interview that you considered quitting Hollywood early in your career When I said that, I was referring not so much to leaving Hollywood, but it was because I didn’t feel fulfilled by the work that I was lucky enough to be getting. I thought, “If I’m not lucky enough to do the things that I really want to do, I’m just going to find something else because I don’t feel happy doing this.” Now, I’m just so lucky I get to work with the people that I have been working with. It’s too good to be true. Most of the stuff I do is smaller. Those are just the things I’m attracted to.

Is there anyone currently working in Hollywood who has a career you admire Cate. I think Cate is kind of everybody’s benchmark with everything she does. There’s a lot of other people too. Daniel Day-Lewis — I really admire his work and Marion Cotillard is one of my favourite actresses.

The film looks gorgeous on screen. Did you feel that level of artistry when you were shooting Just knowing Todd’s work, I knew it would be. He made this beautiful visual book of what he wanted the film to look like. Ed Lachman, our director of photography, is just brilliant. Every image is just extraordinary.

What was in Todd’s visual book Did he have stills from other movies No, it was all still photography from the fifties. There was a lot of Ruth Orkin, Saul Leiter, Esther Bubley. A lot of it (except for Leiter) was by female photographers and there were a lot of images of reflections and looking at people through glass. All of it had a dirtier, grittier quality to it.

Were the toys shown in the film vintage Everything was vintage. Even the display cabinets. Because it was a small budget, they wouldn’t have been able to build any of that. They had to find vintage stuff.

Does that apply to the costumes as well All my costumes were vintage. And one was custom-made, but it was based off of a vintage dress that they had found. Most of Cate’s clothes were remakes of actual existing pieces. Her clothes were so refined, you wouldn’t have been able to find clothes in that condition. My stuff was allowed to be lived-in, but her stuff was meant to be more preserved and it would have been hard to find that.