During a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live hosted by Andy Cohen, Cate Blanchett revealed that the ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast received very little pay.
Cohen asked Blanchett which film she got paid the most for and guessed it was ‘Lord of the Rings.’ “Are you kidding me?” the actress responded. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
Blanchett further spoke about her ‘Lord of the Rings’ earnings, “I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears.”
Cate played Galadriel, a powerful elf, in Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. She also returned for the ‘Hobbit’ prequels.
Blanchett isn’t the only ‘Lord of the Rings’ star to talk about low pay. Orlando Bloom said on The Howard Stern Show in 2019 that he was paid only $175,000 for all three movies.
The actress is now promoting her new movie, ‘Borderlands.’ She plays Lilith in the film, which is based on the video game. The movie, also starring Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Hart, will be released in the US on August 9.
“I thought, ‘This could be really interesting,'” Cate previously said about her new film. “In the game, there was always a nod and a wink; a deliberate B-grade mash-up of chunky sci-fi and spaghetti Western.”
She also talked about working with Curtis and Gina Gershon, “Jamie’s just exceptional. And when Gina walked on set, it was like va-va-voom, as it always is with her. I mean, it’s not ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ It’s not ‘Blade Runner.’ It’s its own strange, weird thing, and when you look at the casting, there’s a motley quality to it. We’re a very motley crew, in life and in art [Laughs.] I don’t think anyone would call ‘Borderlands’ art, but it’s fun.”
Besides ‘Borderlands,’ Blanchett is working on other projects. One of them, called ‘Rumours’ after the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album, will be out this fall.
You can watch the rest of the talk show below.
