Cate Blanchett's Blue Jasmine Birkin Bag Cost More Than the Film's Entire Costume Budget

By Alex Heigl

03/02/2014 at 12:00 PM EST

Cate Blanchett

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Cate Blanchett may be making waves with her searing Blue Jasmine performance, but her turn as the titular socialite didn't exactly endear her to the film's costume designer.

Blanchett picked up a best actress award at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards for her role as Jasmine. Asked about Blue Jasmine's appeal to both indie and mainstream audiences, she said, "Well, [Woody Allen] constantly does that with his films ... He always works on a shoe string."

"That Birkin that I was carrying was worth more than [Costume Designer] Suzy Benzinger’s entire costume budget and I kept throwing it on the ground. She was having conniptions as I was doing it."

"Suzy Benzinger was absolutely instrumental," Blanchett continued. "I love the process with the costume designer of charting your character's journey through [fashion] the way that we express ourselves, because we all do."

During her acceptance speech at the Audi and Dark Horse-sponsored event, Blanchett said Blue Jasmine "proves that audience are interested in stories led by women, and that they can in fact make money."

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