When Cate Blanchett finished making Elizabeth in 1998, she told friends—with an equal measure of certainty and dread—that she was afraid the movie might be her last. "I just thought, Well, Glenda Jackson played it. Bette Davis played it. And who the hell was I to come along from Australia and try to carry off the role of the monarch who completely transformed British culture?" she recalled not long ago. Blanchett shrugged, then laughed at herself. "It sounds silly now," she said, "but perspective is not necessarily an actor's gift—at least not this actor's gift."

"Head First" has been edited for Style.com; the complete story appears in the November 2006 issue of Vogue.

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