LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― She might be one of the finest actresses of her generation but Cate Blanchett believed she might never have the chance to work with Woody Allen.

So when the Oscar-winning Australian star was presented with the chance to become the latest in Allen’s long line of iconic leading ladies, Blanchett did not hesitate for a second.

“We’re all the same, when you get Woody’s call, you take it and you’ve already said yes before you know what it is. You just hope it’s a good one,” Blanchett recalled.

“I had given up hope of ever working with him, I thought he wasn’t interested.”

Any possible uncertainty about the quality of the remarkably prolific Allen’s latest effort, “Blue Jasmine,” evaporated immediately however.

The film, which stars Blanchett as a wealthy New York socialite desperately struggling to adjust to new circumstances after her husband (Alec Baldwin) is mired in a financial scandal, has been talked about as one of Allen’s best in years.

Blanchett’s towering performance has already seen her installed as early front-runner to add a best actress Academy Award to the Oscar she picked up for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator.”

“No one has started 2013 Oscar talk quite like Cate Blanchett’s unanimously acclaimed performance in Blue Jasmine,” was the verdict of respected Hollywood industry blog Deadline.com.

Blanchett, who would join the likes of Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Mira Sorvino and Penelope Cruz as actresses who Allen has helped to win an Oscar, said she was mesmerized by “Blue Jasmine” immediately.

“The minute I read the script it was fantastic,” Blanchett recalled at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

“It’s impeccably structured, it’s absurd and tragic, often simultaneously.”

But for all the Oscar buzz, the opportunity of working with Allen ― in what is his 43rd film ― was reward in itself, according to Blanchett.

“I feel privileged to be playing the title role in a Woody Allen film,” she says. “He’s influenced the popular culture in ways that we can’t even know.”

Allen ― who once confided in an interview that “My heart is in it more when I’m writing for women” ― has delivered another superb female character study in “Blue Jasmine” according to Blanchett.