Cate Blanchett made a very bizarre suggestion that won’t go over well with millions of people.
The actress – who has won several awards including an Oscar – said she doesn’t think Hollywood award shows should be televised.
During a recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, she said awards shows should ‘go back to the day when it wasn’t televised.’
The subject came up during a discussion about private spaces in which Cate noted that there are ‘so few spaces that you can go now, where you are private,’ without phones that carry the risk of someone recording you.
‘That’s what I loved about the late ’80s [was] going to all of the dance parties in Sydney for Mardi Gras. People were just there,’ she recalled.
‘They were so present, you know, they were just together, collectively, having a great time. It was non-aggressive. No one was being recorded. No one cared what anyone did.’
Cate Blanchett doesn’t think Hollywood Award shows should be televised. Seen here March 11, 2025
Hosts Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang noted how privacy is even more elusive in the era of TikTok.
Especially, they emphasized, with the trend of lip readers analyzing celebrity moments during televised awards shows and other events.
‘But now it feels like that chasm between that kind of event, that ideal, is widening from the thing that’s very common now at, like, an awards show where you’ve got lip readers, you’re being photographed,’ Yang said.
‘Lip readers?’ Blanchett said confusedly.
Yang and Rogers explained the trend of TikTok users deciphering what celebrities are saying as the camera lingers on them.
Yang said the lip readers make Hollywood events feel ‘treacherous’ and Blanchett agreed.
‘I mean, I say, I know it’s blasphemy, go back to the day when it wasn’t televised,’ Blanchett suggested. ‘Bring that back and just have a great party where people can just let go.
‘I mean the industry is so scattered and at such a point…which I think potentially could be exciting or could really be depressing, but it’s at a pivot point, and so we need to gather together and celebrate what it is that we do, without it having to have any public-facing.’
During a recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, she said awards shows should ‘go back to the day when it wasn’t televised.’ Seen here in 2025
The subject came up during a discussion about private spaces in which Cate noted that there are ‘so few spaces that you can go now, where you are private.’ Seen here with Michael Fassbender in Black Bag Grabs
She continued, ‘I mean, the fashion is great, and all of that stuff. We’ll find out in the end who won or who didn’t win.
‘But it would be so nice that that happened behind closed doors. [It would be] absolutely a very different evening.’
Blanchett is a two-time Oscar winner for best supporting actress in 2005 for her performance in The Aviator and best lead actress in 2014 for Blue Jasmine.
She has also been nominated for six additional Academy Awards, so she knows what she’s talking about.
However, it is extremely unlikely the Academy Awards will take themselves off the air anytime soon.
The annual awards ceremony has been televised since the 25th Oscars in 1953.
Cate is currently promoting her thriller Black Bag which also stars Michael Fassbender, Piece Brosnan, Rege-Jean Page, Naomie Harris and Marisa Abela.
Black Bag, which was directed by Steven Soderbergh, follows legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse (Michael) and his wife Kathryn Woodhouse (Cate).
‘I mean, I say, I know it’s blasphemy, go back to the day when it wasn’t televised,’ Blanchett suggested. ‘Bring that back and just have a great party where people can just let go. Seen here at the 82nd Golden Globes in January
The synopsis for the thriller reads: ‘When his beloved wife Kathryn is suspected of betraying the nation, intelligence agent George Woodhouse faces the ultimate test — loyalty to his marriage or his country.’
Speaking just days before the March 14 release of Black Bag, she made her feelings clear on inequalities within Hollywood and in society in general.
She told The Guardian: ‘We’re nowhere near equal pay! Talking about it noisily doesn’t mean action has happened.
‘I mean, there’s a greater concentration of wealth than perhaps there ever has been in human history. And we can see where that’s got us.’
