2006

Cate Blanchett

Taking on Bob Dylan

"I wanted to be him," Blanchett tells The New Yorker of being cast as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There (right). The entire ensemble, including Heath Ledger and Christian Bale, play the singer at different periods of his life. "It's the first time I ever had that feeling. I actually wanted to be Dylan. Ultimately, he just really didn't care. He's on his own path."

Cate Blanchett

November 10

Babel

Blanchett plays Brad Pitt's wounded wife (left) in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel. "You're assaulted with poetic reality," Blanchett tells EW of the film. "That's the domain of the auteur." That same year, she plays a mad femme fatale opposite George Clooney in The Good German.

Cate Blanchett

December 27

A Juicy Scandal

Blanchett stars as a teacher who sleeps with her teenage student and is blackmailed by Judi Dench (right) in Notes on a Scandal. She receives Golden Globe, SAG and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress. "She was quite ruthless in the way she approached that role," Notes screenwriter Patrick Marber tells The New Yorker. "This was a woman whom she was not going to explain or apologize for-she was just going to play it."

2007

Cate Blanchett

October

The Risk Taker

A glowing Blanchett, 38, graces the cover of W. In the cover story, she discusses her most anticipated roles: playing Bob Dylan in I'm Not There and a Russian villain in the fourth Indiana Jones film (costarring Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf). She calls the highly anticipated sequel, "the ultrasecret, secret project, the one that cannot be discussed."

2008

Cate Blanchett

February 24

Pregnant, Talented and Beautiful

A pregnant Blanchett walks the red carpet of the Academy Awards, with two Oscar nods: one for Best Actress as Queen Elizabeth I and another for Best Supporting Actress as Bob Dylan. Although she doesn't take a statue home, she does welcome her third son, Ignatius Martin, in April. That May, she also helps shatter the weekend box office, with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull making an estimated $311 worldwide.

Photo Credits

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Splash News Online; Paramount; Kobal Collection/Wireimage; Frazer Harrison/Getty

Edited by Mai Dinh, Janet Murphy