Cate Blanchett on "terrifying, documentary-esque quality" to surreal G7 drama Rumours

But despite all that, star Cate Blanchett – who plays fictional German chancellor Hilda Ortmann – says there is something very truthful about its portrayal of a world in crisis, as she explains in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"The way I think that they've thrown it at the audiences, is they don't try and make sense of it," she says of the directors' approach.

"But it is very funny, and I think the world has become even more absurd since we made it. And so there's a terrifying, documentary-esque quality to it that I didn't really see coming!"

Nikki Amuka-Bird plays the film's UK Prime Minister Cardosa Dewindt, and after witnessing audience reactions to the film so far, can only agree with her co-star's assessment.

"Some people have said, you know, it's, too close to reality for them," she says. "Which is worrying and surprising!"

The assorted Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors in the film are not based on any specific world leaders, but Blanchett and Amuka-Bird both found themselves studying real B-roll footage from G7 summits to get a better handle on their characters' interactions.

And although those characters are often displayed as clueless, bumbling idiots, this research process gave the actors a greater degree of understanding for them than they might have initially expected.

"That was a revelation to me," Blanchett says of watching the footage. "I mean, how deeply awkward these situations that they were placed in. They were all photo opportunities. There were no private moments. And how unmoored from their physical selves they seemed to be, I found fascinating and compelling. So it made me have a great deal of empathy for them."

"The performance we require from them as well," adds Amuka-Bird. "We need them to be neat and tidy, married and morally correct, and great cooks, or whatever it is that we need them to be. And you could feel, as you say, that awkwardness, and that's a great starting point. They're the only people who know what its like to lead a nation, and that's an isolating thing. And so they have that in common.

"And slowly, during the course of their journey, they kind of form these bonds, these strange bromances, there are affairs and all sorts of unexpected relationships formed between them. But I think, you know, we played it straight. That's a cliche, but it's like, we don't need to impose an idea for other people to have an opinion for themselves."

As the film becomes increasingly detached from reality, there's a chance some viewers might become rather lost in the woods trying to make sense of everything, just as the politicians themselves do in the film.

But Blanchett says that rather than looking for explicit, easy answers that explain away everything going on – just what is the meaning of that giant brain, for example – it's better to embrace than sense of the inexplicable and get caught up in the madness.

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"I connected with Guy over a love of Buñuel, and one of both of our favourite films is The Exterminating Angel," she says, referencing the 1962 masterwork by the famed Spanish surrealist.

"And he said, 'Oh, actually, that is quite an interesting reference point for this film,' in that, if you view it like a dream, dreams make absolute sense in the moment, but often from two conflicting, contradictory sort of stimuli.

"And so I think, like a lot of Guys's work – and I think it's a hallmark of great creativity – is when you can allow these conflicting, often antithetical states to coexist and allow the audience to make sense or not. And so that was the place that I worked from, because I really didn't try and pin it down to any logic."

Rumours is now showing in UK cinemas.

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