Cate Blanchett has revealed in a recent interview with Variety magazine that she has had relationships with women in the past.

While discussing her upcoming film "Carol" which also stars Rooney Mara, the 45-year-old actress let it slip that she has dated women "many times."

When asked by the interviewer if "Carol" was her first time playing a lesbian role, Blanchett smiled coyly then replied, "In film - or in real life?" When pressed for more details about the matter, Blanchett, who is married to playwright Andrew Upton, confirmed that she indeed had intimate relations with women, but didn't elaborate further.

"Carol," which is based on the 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel "The Price of Salt," centers on Blanchett's character as a married store clerk who falls in love with Therese, a younger employee portrayed by Mara, Variety wrote.

Film4 acquired the rights to "Carol" back in 2000, with screenwriter Phyllis Nagy writing its big screen adaptation. The project then went on 10 revisions in the past decade with a handful of directors dropping out, including Kenneth Branagh and John Maybury, the news outlet noted. Todd Haynes finally signed on as the film's director in 2013.

Back then, Blanchett had apprehensions when it comes to "Carol" making it to theaters. Mara, who at the time just finished filming "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," even turned her role down in the movie as Therese at first. The news outlet noted that Mia Wasikowska was approached for Mara's role, but eventually came back to the latter when Wasikowska had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.

"It was so hard," Blanchett recalled, as reported by Variety. "Midrange films with women at the center are tricky to finance. There are a lot of people laboring under the misapprehension that people don't want to see them, which isn't true."

"Carol" was financed by Film4 and Goldcrest Films and was shot to achieve a 1950s New York atmosphere. The project wrapped in April 2014 after only 35 days of filming, Variety reported.

Speaking about the challenges of carrying out gay relationships on movies, Haynes explained, "In some ways, the event of a gay love story is less surprising every day. But I think love stories are hard to pull off, period. They require external forces that keep the lovers apart," the news outlet quoted.

Discussing how she interpreted Carol, Blanchett said that never really thought about sexual orientations, adding that the character didn't actually come out as a lesbian.

"Her sexuality isn't politicized," the movie star told Variety. "I think there are a lot of people that exist like that who don't feel the need to shout things from the rafters."