Cate Blanchett Flips the Bird on the 2026 Olivier Awards Red Carpet After Warning Someone to ‘Stop It’

NEED TO KNOW

• Cate Blanchett made some waves on Sunday, April 12, while attending the 2026 Olivier Awards in London

• The Oscar winner was seen giving the middle finger to someone while walking the red carpet

• Blanchett was attending the ceremony as a nominee for best actress for her work in the London Barbican Theatre’s production of The Seagull

Cate Blanchett isn’t letting anyone boss her around on the red carpet.

The Oscar-winning actress, 56, made some waves on Sunday, April 12, while attending the 2026 Olivier Awards in London.

Video footage of the carpet showed Blanchett giving the middle finger to someone just off-screen. Moments before, she can be seen holding her palm up to the person, who is not visible in the video, and saying, “Stop it.”

Blanchett was attending the ceremony as a best actress nominee for her work in the London Barbican Theatre’s production of The Seagull.

It was not immediately clear if the person she was speaking to — and gesturing toward — was a red carpet reporter.

As for her red carpet look, Blanchett appeared at the awards ceremony in a black gown by Lanvin with shoulder cutouts and a criss-cross cutout that showed off her midriff.

Earlier this month, Deadline reported that Blanchett’s London production of The Seagull — which also features Tom Burke and The Crown alum Emma Corrin — is looking to transfer to New York later this year.

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In 2025, Blanchett spoke to the Radio Times, opening up about some of her least favorite aspects of fame – and how she could see herself living a life away from the big screen.

“My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it: I am serious about giving up acting,” Blanchett said. “[There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life.”

While the actress didn’t give a specific time frame of when she’d leave acting, she explained how she dislikes seeing headlines following interviews or being photographed.

“When you go on a talk show, or even here now, and then you see soundbites of things you’ve said, pulled out and italicized, they sound really loud. I’m not that person,” Blanchett said. “I make more sense in motion — it’s been a long time to remotely get comfortable with the idea of being photographed.”

Also last year, as The Seagull was just opening in London, Blanchett opened up to the Guardian about the play — and how performing on stage was her way in to the arts.

“We had an amazing drama teacher,” she said, opening up about her childhood in Australia. “It was really messy and it felt circus-like, with all the girls who didn’t fit into other groups, all the mismatched ragamuffins. We just made stuff, and when you make people laugh it’s quite addictive.”

“But I never, ever, ever thought it was something I would do, or that I could do, that one did with one’s life,” she continued. “I was doing it for fun, and then I was going to go and get a proper job. This is where it’s a vocation I think – it sounds very precious these days when you say that – but in the sense that I didn’t pursue it, it pursued me. Someone suggested I try out for drama school and I did, kind of as a dare, and I got in.”

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