Australian Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett has taken time out from the global press tour for new spy thriller Black Bag to go on a rant about her hatred for a common garden tool.
During a viral interview with Subway Takes this week, the Borderlands star said leaf blowers ‘need to be eradicated from the face of the earth’.
In the popular American social media series, righteous New Yorkers, occasional influencers and celebrities deliver one controversial opinion while sitting on the New York subway.
Even before Cate sat down with host Kareem Rahma to reveal hers, fans of the actress took to the comments in excited anticipation.
‘As a long-time Cate fan, I know she’s going to talk about leaf blowers,’ one commented.
And it wasn’t too long before Cate launched into her impassioned tirade, explaining why she believes leaf blowers represent everything wrong with the human race.
Australian Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett has taken time out from the global press tour for new spy thriller Black Bag to go on a rant about her disdain for a common garden tool
During a viral interview with Subway Takes this week, the Borderlands star said leaf blowers ‘need to be eradicated from the face of the earth’.
‘It’s the stupidity! It is a metaphor for what is wrong with us as a species,’ she said.
‘100 per cent agree,’ Kareem said.
‘I was in Miami the other day, I literally saw a guy blowing one leaf on the beach.’
‘They drive me nuts!’ Cate fumed.
‘They’re a metaphor. We blow s**t from one side of our lawn to the other side and then the wind is just going to blow it back.
‘Not only are leaf blowers ugly and they’re noise pollution, but your neighbours hate you!
‘Because in the end all you’re doing is blowing the leaves onto your neighbours’ lawn. ‘So it’s really bad for neighbour relations. They’re really bad for your health.’
‘Whatever happened to rakes?’ Kareem chimed in.
Fans of the web-series flocked to Kareem’s comments to inform the comedic host that Cate has been vocal about her passionate hatred for the common garden tool for years
‘Make your f**king kids do it! I’ll pay my kids two bucks an hour, okay three bucks, to rake the leaves and make sure their hearts are in good condition,’ Cate continued.
‘Well they’re now 24 so they don’t listen to me anymore.’
‘Is this a problem in Australia?’ he asked her.
‘My rage actually went through the roof in Washington, D.C, where I think there is the highest concentration of leaf blowers in America,’ she explained.
‘And they banned them.
‘They did a study back in 2010 or somethin and found that 30 minutes on a leaf blower — this is going to make you really sick — creates more pollution than driving a pick up truck from Texas to Alaska. 30 f**king minutes!’
‘It’s really bad, so they banned them in Washington.’
Kareem suggested leaf blowers should work more like vacuums.
‘Everything’s blowing, nothing’s sucking,’ Cate joked.
Fans of the web-series flocked to Kareem’s comments to inform the comedic host that Cate has been vocal about her passionate hatred for the common garden tool for years.
‘Her anti-leaf blower passion has been recorded in many interviews. This is her personal crusade,’ a viewer wrote.
‘She has a visceral, everlasting hatred for leaf blowers and I find that fascinating,’ another added.
The Tár star has been very vocal about her disdain for the leaf blowers, over an impressive period of years, especially during a 2022 episode of Hot Ones.
‘There are whole YouTube compilations of how much Cate Blanchett hates leaf blowers,’ another viewer commented with delight.
People magazine asked Cate how she felt about her Subway Takes interview going viral during a press junket interview for Black Bag this week, alongside her co-star Michael Fassbender.
‘They’re the most moronic invention,’ she added, launching a second attack on the garden tool.
‘You just got me going about leaf blowers. They’re moronic. I mean, if you see someone with a leaf blower, doesn’t your blood pressure go up?’
Cate wasn’t surprised to learn that her latest rant had been heard around the world.
‘I talk about it all the time,’ she said coolly.
Cate currently lives with her husband, acclaimed Australian playwright Andrew Upton, and their four children in a US$6million Victorian mansion in Sussex, near London, while they renovate a luxury eco-home in Cornwall.
But the A-lister is often at home in Sydney, where she and Upton were co-directors of Sydney Theatre Company until 2013, and she will be returning to Australia later this year to film The New Boy.
