Video: Singapore Fashion Week & Interviewing Cate Blanchett

Featuring life guide by the one-and-only, Cate Blanchett.

On my last visit to Singapore a few weeks ago for Singapore Fashion Week, I had a chance to do a little chit-chat with Hollywood actress and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. She was really sweet in person, and has really stunning and glowing skin in real life. We talked about her beauty routine, her muses in life, and her thoughts about world's beauty standards.

Q: Hi Cate! How do you think having a good skin can encourage women to do big things? 

Anything that you can do in life that makes you feel more confident, or literally helps you fit better in life, or more comfortable inside your own skin, which means I have to think about it less, so I actually have more time to think about the outside world. 

Q: Since we already know what you do for your face, what do you do for the rest of your body?

Oh, you don’t wanna know what I don’t do for my toes (laughs) I should do exercise regularly. It makes you feel better. My job is very physical, and I have 4 children. I want them to eat healthily so I eat relatively healthily, and I want to make my exercise consistent, instead of being a short burst. 

Q: Do you have anything to comment on the consistent beauty trend where the Asians want to look like the Western and the Western wants to look like the Asians? 

It's a really interesting case in point that I’m Caucasian and I’m the ambassador of an Asian brand, and they were quite surprised when they heard that I’ve been using the whitening range. Because that supposed to be a very Eastern obsession rather than a Western obsession. But I think there’s a lot of crossover. And there’s a lot that Western can learn from Eastern’s notions of beauty. One which I certainly subscribed to is beautiful things are unique and also contain a flaw or imperfection in them. And in the West I think we’re obsessed with perfection. And which is what I love about SK2 is that not only the science is real, it’s also based on working making people look the best that they can for themselves.

Q: What or who is your beauty ideals, manifested in person? 

When you look at people like Georgia O’Keeffe, Charlotte Rampling, Louise Bourgeois or Liv Ullmann, and you can tell through all the way their faces have gracefully aged, that they have really interesting lives, and they’re really magnetic. I didn’t have the great fortune to meet Louise Bourgeois or Georgia O’Keeffe, but I can say that they’re very magnetic and alluring, interesting women. And when you meet them, you meet their minds, as much as their physics. Their personality continue to evolve and get richer. 

Q: What is your philosophy when it comes to aging gracefully? 

I’d say work with what you’ve got and don’t panic. I mean, it’s not a question men ever get asked, isn’t it? It’s really not a question men get asked at all. So stay engaged with the world. And think about yourself less. 

Q: How do you know that when you have made a particular decision or you’ve chosen a path, that it will lead you to your destiny? 

Often the things in my life where the most profound changes happened I’ve taken unusual unexpected turning of the road. I’ve been surprised by how it opens up many other doors. There is a sense you know that not only with one’s DNA, that you’re born with good skin or you’re born with great intelligence. People with great intelligence can squander that and become the most stupid people in the world. People with great skin can have sun exposure and use products and insane amount of cosmetic surgery and all you see is they’re panic. I think it’s what you do with what you’ve got. And in that way I think the choices that we make can really shape not only the way your personality evolves. It’s what you expose yourself to and who you surround yourself and what you actually do with your life. 

Q: If you can go back in time, what would you tell yourself then?

Hmm, what would I tell myself? I don't know, a million things. I wish I’ve found SK2 ten years earlier. Because no one said you’ve got amazing skin in your twenties. It won’t really until my mid-thirties that people began to say your skin really luminesce, well I thought the only thing I do different is I use SK2 consistently. 

Q: You've won the oscar twice, how the awards has change your possession towards yourself, your personality, and your confidence? 

Winning the second one was quite something. It is a very humbling overpowering experience standing up in a room in front of people who you revere, and they’re standing up for you, I will never forget that. But I think it’s important to know that you haven’t arrive anywhere. I didn’t deserve that any more than the other women in my category, that’s just what happened. And I’m grateful for it, but I don’t think “Yeah, I’ve achieved this, I’m gonna sit back and enjoy them.” You gotta look for the next challenge, the next thing that you can screw up. (smiles)