Cate Blanchett hails Prince William as 'extraordinary leader' in fight against climate change

Cate Blanchett has described the Prince of Wales as "an extraordinary leader" in the fight against climate change, drawing on her experience serving alongside him on the Earthshot Prize Council.

The two-time Oscar winner, 57, told Harper's Bazaar UK that Prince William is "very hands-on in a consistent and practically engaged way" regarding environmental matters.

The Australian star, who sat on the panel William established to find technological answers to the climate crisis, noted that he "inherited that interest [from the King]. He's grown up with it."

King Charles has also led the charge on climate change since his introduction to public speaking. In 1970, the then-Prince of Wales warned an audience in Cardiff of the "horrifying effects of pollution, in all its cancerous forms".

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Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Kingdom, Elin Suleymanov also told GB News the monarch's "commitment to environment and to climate change is very inspirational".

William yet again demonstrated his commitment to the climate cause last week, after he sent his thoughts and condolences to those affected by the wildfires ravaging across Europe.

"These events are a stark reminder of the challenges posed by an increasingly extreme climate and the importance of protecting both people and nature," he declared.

It is a passion that clearly resonates with Mrs Blanchett, who has long championed environmental causes alongside her celebrated acting career.

Beyond her environmental advocacy, she has also turned her attention to the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.

Mrs Blanchett co-founded RSL Media, a not-for-profit technology firm that maintains a register enabling creative professionals to indicate whether they consent to their work being used by AI companies for machine learning purposes.

"When this technology started to blow up, a lot of the people who were at the cutting edge were going to governments and saying, 'We've done this; how are we going to use it? What the risks?'" she told the magazine.

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She identified consent as the fundamental issue at stake, lamenting that polarisation has made productive conversation nearly impossible.

"[Everything's] so polarised no one feels they can get around the same table to discuss the challenges, and the central one is consent."

Mrs Blanchett also weighed in on the state of gender equality; while acknowledging that society has reached "an exciting point," she made clear it has "never reached equality of pay."

"Not only has MeToo been rolled back, and super-quickly discredited, but there's a conversation in one of the biggest democracies in the world [the US] about women not having the right to vote because of household voting," she said.

On the stage, Mrs Blanchett will appear at the National Theatre in a production of Electra/Persona, sharing the billing with German actress Nina Hoss.

The star, perhaps best known to cinema audiences for her work in the Lord of the Rings films, first caught the Academy's eye with her portrayal of Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Elizabeth.

She claimed the best supporting actress Oscar in 2004 for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, before securing the leading actress prize in 2013 for Blue Jasmine.

The full interview appears in Harper's Bazaar UK's September edition, available from August 6.

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