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• I'm Not There

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. (Greg Williams / AP Photo for The Star)

This photo provided by the Weinstein Company shows Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There.

Actress Cate Blanchett poses for a portrait.

It seems no iconic figure is beyond Cate Blanchett, who shot to stardom as Queen Elizabeth I, won an Academy Award as Katharine Hepburn, enchanted audiences as the mythic elf Galadriel in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, then returned for another run as the queen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."

Now comes "I'm Not There," with Blanchett as one of six actors embodying an icon of modern times -- Bob Dylan. Blanchett plays an incarnation of the musician during the Dylan-goes-electric uproar in the mid-1960s, when fans of his early acoustic sound renounced him for plugging in.

A certain fearlessness is needed to take on figures as familiar as Dylan, a ruler as illustrious as Elizabeth or a character as beloved as Galadriel, or to jump into a rabidly awaited sequel such as her current project, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Gut reactions

While it's taken some convincing by filmmakers for Blanchett to agree to some parts, she said her choices generally come from the gut.

"People say, 'How do you choose a role?' In the end, I think you really decide in about two-and-a-half seconds," said Blanchett, 38.

"It's a purely instinctual response. And then you spend !the rest of your time trying to rationalize your way into it or out of it. Sometimes that takes a couple of weeks and sometimes it takes 10 years, like 'Elizabeth.'."

When "Elizabeth" premiered in 1998, Blanchett had only a few television and screen credits and was little-known outside her native Australia, where she trained in theater and had become an acclaimed stage performer.

An irreverent glimpse of !the early, uncertain days of !a woman whom history has painted as a steely monarch, "Elizabeth" earned Blanchett a best-actress Oscar nomination.

A supporting-actress win followed for her turn as Hepburn in 2004's "The Aviator," and Blanchett received a third nomination for last year's "Notes on a Scandal," in which she co-starred with Judi Dench -- who won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth in "Shakespeare in Love" the same year "Elizabeth" came out.

Though actresses as esteemed as Bette Davis and Glenda Jackson both had played Elizabeth two times, Blanchett was hesitant to return to the role at first. In fact, she had reservations about playing the part the first time around.

"My initial feeling when the film came my way the first time -- it was probably hubris, because I was completely unknown and should have been throwing myself at their feet -- but I thought, well, Glenda Jackson's done this. What do I have to say about it?" Blanchett said.

Playing Dylan was an easier sell when Blanchett met with "I'm Not There" director and co-writer Todd Haynes, who also cast Richard Gere, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger among the six actors portraying different sides of the enigmatic rocker.

The incarnations range from a 13-year-old black boy riding the rails under the name Woody Guthrie, an idol of Dylan's, to Gere as the grizzled Billy the Kid in the Old West, representing Dylan's period as a recluse in Woodstock, N.Y.

Accepting challenges

Haynes "wanted to talk to me before I read the script, which was actually really wise, because the script was verging on impenetrable," Blanchett said. "Because it was a filmmaker script, all the pieces of the puzzle were in Todd's mind. I think the title of the section I was in was 'Electric Star Wreaks Havoc on His European Tour !in the Style of Fellini's "861/27".'

"When somebody offers you something as insane as that, it would be pure cowardice to say no."

Along with the "Indiana Jones" adventure opposite Harrison Ford, Blanchett next year also reunites with Brad Pitt, her co-star in 2006's "Babel," for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Adapted from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, the film casts Pitt as a man developing backward from old age to infancy, with Blanchett as the lover aging in the opposite direction.

Pitt was thrilled to work with Blanchett again so soon.

"She is mesmerizing. I don't know why. It's beyond my understanding," Pitt said. "Why we all want to work with her is she elevates the rest of us. She's just got some ethereal grace and elegance that's beyond me, and an acute understanding of human nature. She's just exquisite. She's otherworldly."

By David Germain / Associated Press