Carol: the 1950s lesbian love story that spent 16 years in development
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in Patricia Highsmith’s semi-autobiographical coming of age tale
In the period drama Carol, Cate Blanchett plays the elegant, sophisticated, title character who lives in the suburbs outside New York City. Rooney Mara portrays the shy young salesgirl Therese who works in a Manhattan department store.
The women have nothing in common until they fall in love, bending all social mores to bridge the gap between their worlds and that of the conservative society around them. Carol is trapped in what should be a perfect marriage. Therese, at least a decade younger than Carol, is headed toward the ideal life goal for a single girl in 1952 – marriage to her long-time fiance.
That stark contrast in style and deportment carried over into the real world recently when the actresses got together to discuss the film. Blanchett, dressed in a silky cream pants suit and red stilettos, filled the room with her presence as she engaged on multiple levels about the subversive love story in the film. Mara preferred to speak as little as possible, looking like a somewhat disinterested teen in a gothy black outfit and pale, gloomy make-up.
Equal to both actors, however, was the challenge of conveying the risk of a same-sex love affair to audiences who live in an age of marriage-equality legislation and transgender TV stars.
“There’s so many secrets, codes and forbidden topics and taboos that exist between the women of Carol, which is fantastic stuff to play with as actors,” says Blanchett. “But there’s more to it than that. The same-sex nature of the relationship sits alongside the age gap, along the gulf of innocence as opposed to experience. There’s a lot of other textures in the film to explore beyond their relationship.”