Cate Blanchett Tells Audience to Can It With the Phones

Cate Blanchett would like your phone to take the night off. While taking her bow at London's National Theatre on Friday, the two-time Oscar winner asked the crowd at Electra/Persona to stop recording, saying, "There are few places on this planet where we can simply be together and be present." Her full appeal, via the BBC:

• "I understand you like filming the curtain call—and it is kind of flattering in a way—but for anyone who is filming the show, please don't, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us. So thank you very much."

Blanchett's admonishment "was greeted enthusiastically" by the audience, notes Deadline, and has been "widely shared on social media"—albeit via video ostensibly taken by one of those audience members being chastised. An audience member later described Blanchett earlier spotting someone recording during a break between acts and signaling them to stop. Blanchett's appeal drops into a growing backlash from stage actors against phones: Cynthia Erivo, Rosamund Pike, Andrew Scott, and others have all halted performances to call out filming and texting despite theaters' standard no-phones policies.