Cate Blanchettis among her generation’s most acclaimed and prolific actresses. In a career spanning over thirty years, Blanchett has shined in a wide variety of roles, spanning multiple genres in mainstream and indie productions and earning acclaim from the industry, including two Oscars.
RELATED:Cate Blanchett’s 10 Best Performances, Ranked
Although she’s remarkably versatile, Blanchett is incredible at playing antagonists. Whether portraying complicated figures with ulterior motives or plain and vile villains with no redeeming qualities, Blanchett knocks every devious character out of the park. She’s played many memorable baddies, but only a few can reign supreme in the pantheon of evil.
8Jasmine French — ‘Blue Jasmine’ (2013)
It might be unfair to call Blanchett’s character inBlue Jasmine,a villain; however, she is certainly not a good person. Jasmine is selfish, self-absorbed, and incapable of empathy toward others. Even before her fall from grace, Jasmine was willing to look past her husband’s obvious crimes to the point where she got her sister into business with him.
Sure, Jasmine harms no one but herself, especially after her mental breakdown. In a way, she is the antagonist of her own life, ruining every chance she has for recovery. Jasmine meets a tragic end, lost in her mental delusions, forever doomed to relieve the pivotal moment in her life where everything went south. Blanchett delivers a tour-de-force in the film, withJasmine ranking as one of her most complex characters.
7Brie Evantee — ‘Don’t Look Up’ (2021)
Adam McKay’sgreat absurd disaster movieDon’t Look Upstars a large ensemble of acclaimed performers in a satirical and biting story about human ignorance. Blanchett plays Brie Evantee, a conservative news anchor who delivers the news in the most annoyingly simplistic way to keep audiences deluded about the true nature of things.
Brie is self-important and self-aggrandizing. She cares only about herself, having an affair with a married man and acting unrepentant when confronted by the man’s hurt wife. Brie remains selfish to the end, choosing to spend her final moments getting drunk and trash-talking the people she knows. Blanchett shines in the role, which could’ve easily been thankless in the hands of a less capable performer.
6Irina Spalko — ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull’ (2008)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullis a strange movie. The problem is it doesn’t quite feel like anIndiana Jonesmovie, with heavy doses of sci-fi and an over-the-top plot that loses itself somewhere around the middle. However, the film does have several highlights, including Blanchett’s endlessly entertaining villain, Irina Spalko.
RELATED:10 Sequels That Disappointed Audiences By Including Too Much
Hamming it up to an 11, Blanchett goes all-in when the film refuses to embrace the pastiche fully. The two-time Oscar winner is brilliant as Spalko, speaking with a thick Russian accent and behaving like the coldest, most cunning Soviet ever to grace the silver screen. WhatCrystal Skulllacks in consistency, it makes up for in bite, mostly thanks to Blanchett’s committed performance.
5Marissa Wiegler — ‘Hanna’ (2011)
The underrated action thrillerHannastars four-time Oscar nomineeSaoirse Ronanasone of cinema’s best female assassinson the run from a powerful organization.Eric Banaco-stars as the father who trained her, with Blanchett as Marissa Wiegler, the villainous CIA operative who will stop at nothing to kill her.
Hannahas one of Blanchett’s most dastardly roles. Cold, cunning, and manipulative, Marissa is a terrifying villain with few boundaries or limits. Blanchett seldom plays such one-note characters, but there’s an effectiveness to Marissa’s lack of layers. She is a woman on a mission who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, qualities that make her an effective and intimidating villain.
4The Stepmother — ‘Cinderella’ (2015)
Kenneth Branagh’s 2015 retelling ofCinderellais a straightforward adaptation of the 1950 Disney classic.Lily JamesandRichard Maddenstar as Cinderella and her prince, with Blanchett stepping into the wicked stepmother’s high heels.
Blanchett is deviously delicious in the role. Portraying the stepmother as a vain and envious woman desperate for status and money, Blanchett is the perfect foil for James' unassuming and impossibly kind Cinderella. Branagh’sCinderellaworks because it honors and updates the source materialwithout trying to reinvent it, an approach that also extends to Blanchett’s performance. The actress delivers a simple yet compelling portrayal of greed and envy, the perfect villainess for a classic fairy tale.
3Lydia Tár — ‘Tár’ (2022)
In a career full of standout performances,Todd Field’sTÁRstands out as one of Blanchett’s best. The Australian actress plays Lydia Tár, a renowned conductor whose life reaches a turning point after severe allegations force her to face her infamous ways.
RELATED:10 Actors Who Received Oscar Nominations For Playing Other Actors
Blanchett gives one of the best performances of her prestigious career inTár. Passionate, overwhelming, and manipulative, Tár is an appetite; she takes and gives nothing in return, consuming everything and everyone in her path in service of what she believes is the most important thing in the world: talent. Blanchett’s raw, visceral performance makes Tár one of her most authentic characters, a figure of epic proportions who feels like the crowning achievement of an actress who keeps reinventing herself in new and unexpected ways.
2Dr. Lilith Ritter — ‘Nightmare Alley’ (2021)
Guillermo del Torobreathes new lifeintoWiliam Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novelNightmare Alley.Bradley Cooperstars as Stan Carslile, an ambitious carnie who forms a dubious partnership with a seductive psychologist to advance his psychic act.
Blanchett plays Dr. Lilith Ritter, the psychologist playing Stan from the start. Del Toro’s bold and uncompromising approach and Cooper’s intense performance make a hard-to-swallow story even tougher. Blanchett is the ultimate femme fatale as Ritter, her husky voice echoing on the lavish, shadow-immersed spaces in which del Toro surrounds her. Ritter is a perfect villain: lethal, unrepentant, and infallible. Stan is doomed from the moment he meets her and doesn’t even realize it.
1Hela — ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2018)
Marvel villains are usually wasted, dull, and underdeveloped figures there to break some things before the hero stops them. Few leave an impression; when they do, it’s mostly because of the actor playing them rather than the script or direction. However, Blanchett’s Hela might be the sole exception.Thor: Ragnarok’s directorTaika Waititiis as interested in her as he is in the God of Thunder, resulting in a fun and wicked villain who might be Marvel’s best.
Not only is Hela powerful, but she’s also infallible; she lives up to her reputation as the goddess of death. Waititi uses Hela effectively, while Blanchett has the time of her life slumming it down in a Marvel movie.Thor: Ragnarokis among the best MCU films, and Hela is a large reason. Blanchett owns every moment she’s on screen, portraying an incredible villain; what Hela lacks in complexity, she more than makes up in sheer power.
