Cate Blanchett Asks Theatre Audience to Stop Filming — SkimNews
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- Cate Blanchett addressed the audience at Friday's curtain call of Electra/Persona at London's National Theatre, asking anyone filming the show to stop because "it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us."
- An audience member who attended Friday's performance clarified that the filming occurred during the interval between acts — while latecomers were being seated, staff were cleaning, and the cast were doing their makeup on stage — not during the performance itself.
- Blanchett first noticed the filming mid-interval and gestured "no, no, no" from the front of the stage before raising the issue again at the end of the show; the audience greeted her remarks with cheers and clapping.
- The same audience member noted that filming during the interval happens at every performance and staff typically don't intervene, making Friday the first time Blanchett herself had witnessed it across three viewings of the play.
- Electra/Persona, written and directed by Benedict Andrews and running until 10 October, merges Sophocles' Electra with Ingmar Bergman's film Persona, with Blanchett and co-star Nina Hoss splitting the lead roles via a coin toss each night.
- Blanchett joins a roster of actors who've publicly confronted phone use during performances, including Rosamund Pike, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Patti LuPone, and Lesley Manville.
Why it matters: Blanchett's intervention adds a two-time Oscar winner's weight to a recurring industry complaint, and the audience account reveals the issue extends beyond performances to interval moments when cast are visible on stage — a boundary most theatres don't formally enforce. Theatre operators now face growing pressure to police phone use in gaps their own staff routinely tolerate.
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