During a conversation at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Cate Blanchett spoke about the #MeToo movement and said she believes the momentum behind it disappeared too quickly in Hollywood. The actor reflected on the movement’s impact while discussing ongoing gender imbalance in the film industry. She also spoke about the impact of gender imbalance on work culture.
Cate Blanchett discusses the MeToo movement
During a discussion at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Cate Blanchett spoke about the decline of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood. Blanchett made the comments while appearing in an onstage interview moderated by Didier Allouch (via Variety).
The actor said #MeToo “got killed very quickly” despite the number of people publicly sharing their experiences. She said, “There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying me too. Why does that get shut down?”
Blanchett argued that the discussions surrounding #MeToo highlighted abuse and imbalance across multiple industries. “What [the movement] revealed is a systemic layer of abuse, not only in this industry but in all industries, and if you don’t identify a problem, you can’t solve the problem,” she explained.
Blanchett additionally discussed the lack of gender balance she said she continues to witness during productions. According to her, many sets continue to be dominated by male crews and leadership. “I’m still on film sets and I do the headcount every day, and it is still, you know… there’s 10 women and there’s 75 men every morning,” she added.
Blanchett noted that working in heavily homogeneous environments eventually affects workplace culture. “You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I’m used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace. I think it has an effect on the work,” she said.
Blanchett has previously spoken publicly about gender inequality at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
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