Woody Allen admit's Cate crush

Woody Allen has always had a "director's crush" on Cate Blanchett.

The director is behind new drama Blue Jasmine, which stars the Australian actress.

He fell in love with the 44-year-old blonde as soon as he saw her on the big screen for the first time.

"I had always had a director's crush on Cate," he smiled to Variety.

"There was a lot of talk around when [The Talented] Mr. Ripley came out how terrific the movie was and how tremendous [Matt] Damon was and so I went to see the movie. And yes, it was great, but I kept saying, 'Who's that girl' When she's on the screen it lights up.' [Cate played Meredith Logue in the film]. I didn't go to see [stage play] A Street Car Named Desire because I don't think it can be done better and it breaks my heart to see it without Marlon Brando. [But] I saw a few of her movies and I thought, 'She's one of the greatest actresses I've ever seen.'"

Woody was lucky to get Cate on board, as her schedule meant she'd just finished a project when filming for Blue Jasmine started.

The director laughed off the notion that he finds it easy to get big stars to appear in his flicks.

"That's a myth! A good myth, but it's a myth!" he exclaimed.

"They have to be not doing anything at the time because we pay the union minimum, so if they're offered five million they're not gonna do my film no matter what they think of me. I was turned down three times by Sean Penn until he finally accepted a movie of mine."