Cate Blanchett Tells Audience To Stop Recording Her London Play: ‘It Spoils It for The Next Group of People’

Cate Blanchett asked audience members to stop recording her performance in the London play “Electra/Persona” per a video shared on Instagram Friday.

“There are few places on this planet where we can simply be together and be present,” the actress said on stage. “I understand you like filming the curtain call, and it is kind of flattering in a way. But for anyone who is filming the show, please don’t, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us. So thank you very much.”

Blanchett stars alongside Nina Hoss in the play, which is written and directed by Benedict Andrews and runs at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre until Oct. 10. The actresses alternate between the roles of Electra/Elisabeth and Clytemnestra/Alma each night, depending on a coin toss. “Electra/Persona” combines Sophocles’ Greek tragedy “Electra” and Ingmar Bergman’s 1996 film “Persona.”

Beginning her professional acting career on stage at the Sydney Theatre Company, Blanchett previously revealed she “never, ever” thought she could work in the film industry.

“I was resigned, happily, to a career in theater. I didn’t think I was that girl,” she said at the 2025 Rotterdam Film Festival. “There was a sense women had a certain ‘shelf life’ in the film industry and a certain type of women got to parade on the screen and others didn’t.”

The Oscar-winning actress is set to star alongside Selena Gomez and Michael Fassbender in “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet’s upcoming film, Variety confirmed earlier this year. Details about the film remain under wraps, but Corbet has teased it will be X-rated and set in the ‘70s.