Cate Blanchett "never imagined" she would be a professional actress

She told The Guardian: "We had an amazing drama teacher. It was really messy and it felt circus-like, with all the girls who didn't fit into other groups, all the mis-matched ragamuffins. We just made stuff, and when you make people laugh it's quite addictive.

"But I never, ever, ever thought it was something I would do, or that I could do, that one did with one's life."

The 'Borderland' star had every intention of getting a "proper job" after she left finished her education but ended up auditioning for drama school on a whim, and actually got a place.

She said: "I was doing it for fun, and then I was going to go and get a proper job. This is where it's a vocation I think - it sounds very precious these days when you say that - but in the sense that I didn't pursue it, it pursued me. Someone suggested I try out for drama school and I did, kind of as a dare, and I got in."

Prior to that, the 'Tar' actress had studied fine arts and economics at the University of Melbourne simply so she could "be around artists" but admitted that she is "not a painter" and doesn't show anyone anything she does these days.

She said: "I'm not a painter. I doodle, I do ceramics and nothing that I show people because it's not [about] the outcome."