Cate Blanchett says that she is “giving up” acting to do other things “with [her] life”.

In an interview with Radio Times, Blanchett suggested she was uncertain over calling herself an “actress”, saying: “It’s because I’m giving up.”

She added: “My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life”.

Blanchett was speaking as BBC Radio 4 prepared to air her first major radio play, an adaptation of Wallace Shawn’s play The Fever about a woman who undergoes a political and spiritual awakening. Blanchett has just completed a five-week run on stage as Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Barbican theatre, and her most recent major film role, opposite Michael Fassbender as a married spy in the Steven Soderbergh-directed thiller Black Bag, was released in March.

Blanchett has won numerous awards for her acting, including two Oscars (best actress for Blue Jasmine in 2014 and best supporting actress for The Aviator in 2005) and two best actress awards at the Venice film festival (for I’m Not There in 2007 and Tár in 2022).

She recently finished working on a new film directed by Jim Jarmusch, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, which is due for release in 2025 (though was surprisingly omitted from the recent announcement of the lineup for the Cannes film festival), and is currently working on Alpha Gang, a sci-fi comedy directed by David and Nathan Zellner, as both actor and producer. She is also attached (again as both actor and producer) through her production company Dirty Films to The Champions, a film to be directed by Ben Stiller.

Despite her high levels of activity, Blanchett says in the interview that she is uncomfortable with her position as a celebrity actor.

“I’ve always felt like I’m on the periphery of things, so I’m always surprised when I belong anywhere. I go with curiosity into whatever environment that I’m in, not expecting to be accepted or welcomed. I’ve spent a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable.”

She added: “No one is more boring to me than myself and I find other people much more interesting. I find myself profoundly dull.”