While preparing for her new film Carol, Cate Blanchett was able to pull from personal experiences. The 45-year-old actor revealed that she has had “many” off-screen relationships with women in an interview with Variety. 

Carol is a screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt. The story follows a woman named Carol in the 1950s who secretly becomes romantically involved with another woman. The woman is a department store clerk and is played by Rooney Mara.

Variety asked if Blanchett, who has been married for 18 years and recently adopted a child with her husband, if her work in the film was her first time entering an intimate experience with another woman. She responded by asking if they meant on or off screen.

When the Oscar-winning actress was asked to elaborate, she simply said that has had relationships with woman “many times” off screen. She did not comment any further on the matter.

Though she apparently had personal experience to rely on, she also did some research to prepare for her role. She said she read several “girl-on-girl books from the period,” according to Time. 

The film will include some intimate scenes. However, Blanchett promised that the audience will not see anything too graphic.

She added that the ambition of the film does not call for it. “It’s not Blue Is the Warmest Color,” Blanchett said.

Blanchett wants the film to appeal to a large audience while breaking misconceptions about female-driven films, according to People. She said that filming Carol was “so hard” and that getting female-centered films financed is difficult.

She added that there are many people “laboring under the misapprehension that people don’t want to see them, which isn’t true.” She is hoping that this will change since several women, such as Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep have reached a “certain place” in Hollywood.