All Eyes Were (Literally) on Cate Blanchett at the Pinocchio Premiere

The premiere for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday was quite the event. Cameras flashed on Del Toro and the film’s stars like Christoph Waltz and the young Gregory Mann, who voices the puppet-turned-boy in the Netflix film. Most of the attention, however, was on the little wooden guy himself, who was passed around for photos, and later stood on his own on the red carpet. Those who weren’t focusing on Pinocchio, though, had their eyes on Cate Blanchett, who had her eye right back on everyone else.

The actress, who voices a monkey named Sprezzatura in the film, attended the premiere in a unique look straight off the Alexander McQueen spring/summer 2023 runway, which debuted just days before in London. The suit Blanchett plucked from the collection plays heavily on Sarah Burton’s overall theme, which explored the human eye as a “unique symbol of humanity.” A standard white set with exaggerated shoulders, the jacket boasted a large print of an orange eye, that almost looked like an out-of-this-world sunburst when viewed up close. Blanchett’s arm and torso came together to complete the picture, which also featured eyelashes that turned into three-dimensional fringe at the jacket’s hem. Blanchett, and her stylist, Elizabeth Stewart, styled the look much like how it was seen on the runway, sans a shirt underneath and with black, open-toed shoes.

The eccentric piece was perfect for the occasion, and a bit of a departure for Blanchett, who has been wearing much more chic and minimal styles while promoting her other new film, TÁR. While in the Todd Field movie, the actress plays a hardened conductor forced to face her past decisions, in Pinocchio, Blanchett takes on the role of a monkey. The actress revealed to ET Canada that Del Toro offered her the role while they were on set for their previous collaboration, Nightmare Alley. Apparently, Del Toro had previously called Blanchett “a really cheeky, naughty 12-year-old boy.” So, when he told her about Pinocchio, Sprezzatura seemed like a perfect fit. “I don’t have any words. I just make monkey noises for two hours. So yeah, that was fun.”