Cate Blanchett on AI, G7 and Syria crisis

A G7 summit may not seem like a promising setting for a film. But ‘Rumours’ is a kind of comedy horror political satire in which world leaders find themselves tackling zombie bog monsters and a giant brain, as well as world crises.

I spoke to Cate Blanchett, who plays the German Chancellor, and Nikki Amuka-Bird, who plays the British Prime Minister, ahead of the film’s release in cinemas this Friday.

Krishnan Guru- Murthy: Well, congratulations on the film. I watched it last night. I don’t quite know how to describe what it is. So can you tell our viewers, what is this film really? What is it and what’s it about?

Nikki Amuka-Bird: It’s part horror, part political satire. You could say comedy, soap opera, but it starts at the G7 with the leaders of the seven wealthiest democracies – and starts quite conventionally. It’s being hosted by the German chancellor, played by Cate. And they soon discover that they are without their aides, without their security. They’re completely abandoned in the woods and have a very bizarre journey and surreal evening where they’re just confronted with everything you can imagine.

Cate Blanchett: Including their irrelevance.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: It is scathing about political leaders, really, isn’t it?

Cate Blanchett: What I love is – and I didn’t realise before we did all the research for the film – is that there’s a theme each year with these summits, and this year’s summit seems appropriately for us, where we are as a species, is regret. And so it’s…they’re all coming to the end of their personal political tenure at the same time that the world is coming to an end. It’s a very strong apocalyptic setting.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Because once you’ve revealed them as a bit empty and useless and sort of depressingly human – for world leaders. You then also have to give us something to like, don’t you?

Cate Blanchett: I found it very endearing, actually. We all judge our leaders very harshly because, well I mean, there’s a failure of leadership, isn’t there? I mean that’s so obvious that it’s a cliche. But there’s a huge responsibility to solve very complex and nuanced problems and to find a sort of consensus. In fact, a chat bot emerges towards the end, who does seem momentarily to have the answers.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: I mean, it does, as you say, raise the question of AI and chatbots. Where do you think that’s taking us? What’s it making us think?

Cate Blanchett: It’s not pretty. It’s really not pretty – and it’s going so quickly. I think we as human beings have a strange way of looking at the imminent car crash as something sort of strange that is not happening to us.

Nikki Amuka-Bird: And not running out of the way.

Cate Blanchett: Out of control. I think sometimes we’re so enamoured with what we can create that we don’t critique what we’re creating, particularly when it’s monetarised.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: You’re quite directly involved in these sorts of conversations through things like UNHCR, the High Commission for Refugees and work you’ve done highlighting the crisis in Syria, which has blown up again this week.

Cate Blanchett: Yes, yes.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And I just wonder what you think, whether you think those are things that people can engage with more directly.

Cate Blanchett: The more we allow ourselves to become separated from our humanity, then the greater the problem and our own peril becomes. I don’t think the problems facing us as a species are political ones, but they are politicised. Human displacement, climate crisis – they’re not – they require collective action and involve collective responsibility. So, you know. But we can – people are very…I understand everyone’s really frightened.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So how do you get people to focus on the humanity of refugees and the humanitarian crisis when it’s become so political?

Cate Blanchett: I think language is really, really important. And I think we often focus on what separates…it’s so simplistic – but we often focus on what separates us rather than what connects us.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And people will look at you Nikki in this film because you’re the British prime minister.

Nikki Amuka-Bird: I think I know what you’re going to say.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: And obviously, well, you were born in Nigeria. Kemi Badenoch was raised partly in Nigeria and people will obviously put the two together. I just wonder whether you had that in mind?

Nikki Amuka-Bird: Yeah. It was obviously something I thought about. You know, I think colour-blind casting is just so great in terms of the opportunities that it gives, but it’s up to the actors to really root it in reality. So I thought about, would the British public vote me into power? And I did think about Kemi. I even tried to reach out to her at some point and then I thought, this is a very bad idea. Because I don’t want to think this is based on her or in fact, any of the characters are based on real people.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So did you reach out to her?

Nikki Amuka-Bird: So I did, tentatively. And then I backtracked.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: She’s not easy to get hold of.

Nikki Amuka-Bird: She very kindly got back to me. But I realised that this isn’t about that.