Back in 1998, Shekhar Kapur made his Hollywood directorial debut with the film Elizabeth based on Queen Elizabeth I of England. In the film, Cate Blanchett played the titular role and she was lauded for her performance. Interestingly, the actor bagged the film in the initial years of her career and Shekhar narrated an anecdote about the same. The Australian actor had made her Hollywood debut in 1997 and the very next year she starred in Elizabeth for BAFTA Award for Best Actress and earned her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

A while back, Shekhar took to his Twitter page and penned about how he was adamant on casting Cate for the role when the Studio wanted a star. Kapur tweeted, "Elizabeth was my first Hollywood film. I had noticed an unknown girl called Cate Blanchett who I wanted to play Elizabeth. My agent said Studio wanted a star and if I kept insisting on an unknown actor, they will replace me. I said I had to go with my heart. The rest is history."

Check out the tweet below:

July 19, 2020

Earlier, Shekhar had written about how the best actors come from theatre and he has worked with a few too. His tweet read as "Best actors today are coming from theatre. There's a newfound respect for them. And confidence. I’ve worked with Naseer, Shabana, Satish Kaushik, Seema Biswas and entire cast of Bandit Queen, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Heath Ledger Daniel Craig Eddy Redmayne. All are from the theatre."