In 1987, 18-year-old Cate Blanchett, a student of Fine Arts and Economics at Melbourne University, left school to see the world before choosing a career. After visiting England (and being kicked out when her Visa expired) Cate continued on to Egypt. While visiting Cairo, she and some friends were invited to appear as extras in an Arabic boxing film. In desperate need of cash, they reluctantly agreed. The next day, Cate found herself shooting a crowd scene, cheering for an American boxer who was being pummeled by an Egyptian.

“I loved skiing… but I had to stop because my ears got cold.” -- Cate Blanchett on her “historic ears,” which stick out and “tend to catch the wind”

Cate Blanchett kept a diary until, at 12, her brother found it. Her paranoia eventually led her to store addresses in an electronic organizer. Fearing that someone would find it, Cate, an admirer of teenage sleuth Nancy Drew, developed a “little language.” “Every day there would be a different code,” she recalled. The only problem? “I could never decode it! So I’m back to my Filofax…”

While she had longed to work with Peter Jackson and later likened working with a blue screen to playing a “cool video game,” Cate Blanchett also revealed another motivation for accepting the role of the elf queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings (against the advice of her agent, who thought she was mad to commit a year ahead for three weeks of work and limited screen time). “To be honest,” she said, “I basically did it so I could have the ears.” Sure enough, after filming wrapped, Cate left the set with her pointy elf ear prosthetics – which the crew had bronzed.

“Sure. Can I have your pants too?” -- Cate Blanchett after “Late Show” host David Letterman offered her his jacket in the show's freezing studio