Cate Blanchett

For Cate Blanchett, life is all about saying ‘yes’. It is but fitting, then, that the Oscar winner was picked to be the face of Sì, the latest fragrance from the House of Armani. While shooting for the latest ad campaign, she spoke to L’Officiel India about the power of scent, the power of being a woman and the power of ‘sì’.

What is fragrance, to you?

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A memory. The scent of my mother, my childhood, my friends. Fragrance—even more than imagery—is the most powerful thing in the world. It evokes the past. And it can also evoke an aspiration. It can evoke a place and a time, it can evoke a person, it can evoke an experience. It’s also incredibly personal and extremely intimate. It’s where desire lives. It’s sort of the past and the present. And one of the most powerful scents for me is the smell of the beach, of water: The smell of tea tree and salt on the skin…incredibly powerful. Aromas change your mood. To me, fragrance is an incredibly important part of how I enter the day or an evening.

How does perfume relate to femininity?

It is a very subtle yet strong way women express themselves and who they want to be. I don’t think a fragrance should ever enter a room before a woman but when she leaves the room, it should definitely linger on. I think most women know the power of that! And that’s what a great fragrance does, too.

How do you spray on your fragrance?

Around me rather than directly on me. I think a fragrance that you continually want to wear, is one that you want to almost taste as much as smell.

How does the Armani world reflect your personality and who you are?

Where I relate to Armani is in its timelessness. While I only got around to meeting Giorgio Armani in 2006, my aesthetic relationship with him goes back to when I was a teenager—I coveted all those exquisitely tailored men’s suits. When I came out of drama school and got my very first pay cheque, I bought an Armani suit. I still have—and wear—it! Armani is simultaneously modern and effortless but also classic and eminently chic. I’ve always aspired to the grace and simplicity that Giorgio Armani and his designs embody. His brand is as much about the way you live your life and who you are, as it is about how you look. It can contain the sense of how you feel about yourself and how you relate to other people. It’s a way of life.

How do you connect with Sì? What does it mean to you to be a Sì woman?

I often wonder if Mr Armani asked me to be the face Sì because my life is so full and so complete... I’m a mother, a wife, I’m someone who’s very passionate about her career. For me, the fragrance is very much about saying yes to life, saying Sì. It’s incredibly positive about all the aspects of being a woman. You know, those that are potentially dangerous and exciting as well as those that are demure and sensual and personal. There is a sense of duality in the fragrance as well as in me. As an actress, I get to inhabit a lot of different types of women—you have an empathy and an understanding for both, the fragility and the strength that is part of being a woman. I think the interesting tension that lies between polar opposites like fragility and strength, like sophistication and naturalness, is the clash of those two seemingly polar opposite states of being; it’s where the energy of life exists.

Which have been the most important moments you’ve said ‘sì’ to, in your life?

I’m someone who really can’t say no! I’m always saying yes to everything, which is both a blessing and a curse. But more definitely speaking, it’s always yes to love and to risk and to adventure. And I think, in a way, the spirit of all of those things is enmeshed. It’s obviously yes to my family and friendships, and my husband and children—it’s yes to love!

For the TV commercial for Sì, you’ve been directed by Anne Fontaine. Tell us what it was like to be directed by a woman?

I’m a great admirer of Anne Fontaine’s. In fact, she and I had been talking about working together for a while, but, for one reason or another, it didn’t happen. Naturally, I was very pleased to hear that she was going to direct the commercial. And I also thought she was an apt choice for