Cate Blanchett’s uncredited cameo in In Eyes Wide Shut explained

By the end of his career, Stanley Kubrick was so holed up in his home in Hertfordshire that he refused to leave England for anything – even a film shoot. The director moved to England in 1961 to film Lolita at Elstree Studios, and remained there afterward, eventually purchasing the famous Childbury Mansion in 1978 and remaining there until his death in 1999.

The legendary director’s decision to remain in England was motivated at least in part by his distaste for Hollywood studios and his desire to create without interference. This is all well and good, and the director’s post-US films speak for themselves. But sometimes it led to some downright ridiculous scenarios, like in his latest film, “Eyes Wide Shut” took Kubrick’s cumbersome methods to a new level. Specifically, Kubrick set out to make a film that would see Tom Cruise embarking on a nighttime drive through various New York City suburbs, but the director wanted to shoot the entire film at Pinewood Studios in England. The result was a meticulous re-creation of New York’s streets to fit the city’s proportions. How did Kubrick manage to create such realistic fabrications? He sent a team to measure the streets of New York City, of course.

When Eyes Wide Shut debuted, this attention to detail resulted in a film that betrayed none of its artifice. Dr. Bill Harford from “Cruise” travels through New York without abandoning the atmosphere of an English studio, partly because he is on a path. Treadmill Against the background of real footage of New York throughout most of the film.

Interestingly, Kubrick’s refusal to leave the UK also led to some unexpected dubbing that eventually saw Cate Blanchett appear at the start of her film career – although her involvement was kept secret for two decades.

By far the most distinctive visual contribution that “Eyes Wide Shut” has made to our cultural lexicon is An orgy scene that took a lot of research Which has since become shorthand for the shenanigans of the elite in the secret society. After learning of his wife’s infidelity, Dr. Bell stumbles across New York on a journey that may or may not see him engaged in his own affair for one night, only to end up in a mysterious hall where New York’s elite are gathered. Their faces are hidden behind masks inspired by the tradition of Italian comedy. While there, Bill encounters a masked woman who says, “I don’t know who you are or what you think you’re doing, but you clearly don’t belong here.” She then warns him to leave while he still has a chance.

in eagleA 2019 oral history of the orgy scene in the film “Eyes Wide Shut,” actor and longtime Stanley Kubrick collaborator Leon Vitale revealed that the voice at this moment is actually Cate Blanchett’s. Although these lines were delivered by British actor Abigail Goode during filming, Blanchett later redubbed them after being suggested to her by Cruise and his then-wife and co-star Nicole Kidman. “It was Cate Blanchett!” Vitale told Vulture. “We wanted something that was warm and sensual but at the same time could be part of a ritual.”

When Kubrick died on March 7, 1999, post-production on the film had not yet been completed, leaving Vitale to find a suitable voice over Judd’s lines. After all, Cruise was supposed to be in New York, so bringing in a British actor for this short but important interaction wasn’t ideal. Vitale continued:

“Stanley talked about finding this voice and this quality that we needed. After he died, I was looking for someone. It was Tom (Cruise) and Nicole (Kidman) who came up with the idea for Kate. She was in England at the time, so she came to Pinewood And I recorded the lines.”

At the time she scored her uncredited cameo on “Eyes Wide Shut,” Cate Blanchett’s star was truly on the rise. In 1997, she gave what proved to be a breakout performance in the film “Oscar and Lucinda,” before playing Queen Elizabeth I and receiving her first Oscar nomination for “Elizabeth” in 1998. So, when she happened to be in England while Leon Vitale He’s looking for someone to top Abigail Goode, so why not use her – especially if Cruise and Kidman recommend her?

Perhaps the only reason Blanchett isn’t used to reading lines with an American accent is because she’s an Australian actress. In that sense, it would certainly have been easier for Good to improvise an American accent on set, but neither Kubrick nor Vitale seemed to think that way. Either that or the director was toying with the idea of ​​keeping Good’s line intact. He actually showed some uncertainty when it came to the film itself, causing the orgy scene to be severely delayed while creative decisions were made. Heck, Kubrick came close to choosing Steve Martin to star in the film “Eyes Wide Shut.” So he probably didn’t quite think about Good’s line at the time they filmed her scene.

Meanwhile, Judd told Vulture that she always wondered whether or not her reading would make it to the final cut, but she didn’t seem disappointed at all that it didn’t. As she told the outlet:

“When all the other girls left, I was in this amazing situation where I was able to work with amazing artists. I was on set with Tom and Stanley, finding things out on our own. Stanley asked my opinion a lot. Tom and I were some of the last people he’d ever photograph “