The Blue Jasmine star, who was co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company between 2008 and 2013, starred in their production of Tennessee Williams' drama as DuBois, who suffers a mental breakdown and is admitted to hospital.

Blanchett started the run in Sydney, Australia in 2009, before it transferred to Washington, D.C. and then Brooklyn, New York all in the same year, and the stint impacted on her health, so she declined an offer to take it to Broadway.

She tells Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, "I didn't think I could play her for another three months. I'd lost a lot of weight and my hair was falling out."