CATE & CREATIVITY

‘IT’S TANGENTIALLY FASCINATING. IT’S NOT A REPLICATION BECAUSE THE NOVEL EXISTS!’

If you are scandalised by the notion of an unfaithful-to-the-book film adaptation, you might not get along with Cate Blanchett.

“Why even bother?” she said recently, of films that take little to no creative liberties. “The only reason to turn something from a book to the screen is if you’ve got something more to say.” The actress was being asked about her starring role in Based on Maria Semple’s best-selling book of the same name, and in theatres this month, it tells the story of an agoraphobic architect wrestling with her own wasted potential as her daughter, for whom she put her career ambitions aside, prepares to leave home for university. The restrictions of the medium mean the film’s plot necessarily diverges from that of the novel. “But it’s tangentially fascinating,” reasons Cate, whose true-blue Aussie background mitigates the pretentiousness of her frequently over-the-top turns of phrase. “It’s not a replication because the