Cate Blanchett dishes about being evil stepmother in 'Cinderella'

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- "Cinderella" is Disney's next big movie, turning a classic animated fairy tale into a live-action movie.

Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett plays the evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine. She said she liked that the characters in the classic fairy tale have a little more depth.

"The characters have a three-dimensional quality. You understand what is motivating the baddies. You understand the relationship with the so-called goodies," she said.

She adds that people grow from the hardships they experience in life and learn to be empathetic, but that doesn't seem to be the case for the stepmother

"I think she knows that the world is a hard place for women and that it's a dog-eat-dog world out there and she will eat the other dogs," she said.

Blanchett, who is a mother of four, said she isn't worried that kids might be frightened by her "evil" role. She thinks it's good to let children know people all sometimes experience bad things in the world.

"Because we're telling you to be kind, share, have courage - all those things Cinderella is told and does. And I think that (kids) need to exercise their bad side because we all have it. You know, that it's OK, you can be forgiven, which is ultimately the end message of the film," she said.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC7