Cate Blanchett says she was paid in “sandwiches” for ‘Lord of the Rings’
Cate Blanchett has shared her experience of starring in the Lord of the Rings series, half-jokingly suggesting that the actors received little payment for their involvement, except for food.
In 2001, Blanchett starred in the first instalment of the fantasy series, The Fellowship of the Ring, as Middle-earth elf Galadriel. She reprised the role in the second and third films in the trilogy, The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return of the King in 2003.
In total, the series took home almost $3 billion at the box office, but Blanchett has claimed that the actors never saw very much of that money at the beginning of the franchise. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the host guessed that the Lord of the Rings series was Blanchett’s highest paid film.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett responded, “No. No one got paid anything to do that movie.” She went on to state that she “basically got free sandwiches,” and to keep her elf ears. “Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do,” Blanchett added.
For Blanchett, it seems that the motivation for taking the role wasn’t necessarily the paycheck, but the opportunity to work with Peter Jackson. “I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” she declared, referencing his 1992 zombie film set in New Zealand.
Blanchett is currently promoting her new movie Borderlands, which adapts its story from the role-player video game series of the same name. She stars as protagonist Lilith, alongside an all-star cast featuring Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Hart. The film hits cinemas in the United States on August 9th.
Beyond Borderlands, Blanchett has a number of other projects in the works. Rumours, which borrows its name from the iconic 1977 Fleetwood Mac record, is set to arrive this autumn.
“Rumours the album was famously creatively fraught,” one of the director’s of the film, Galen Johnson, explained, “and everyone was sleeping with each other, so it made sense to us.” The comedy premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and also stars Alicia Vikander and Charles Dance.
Blanchett is also set to collaborate with the legendary director of con movie classic Ocean’s Eleven Steven Soderbergh on a new spy film. Black Bag began filming earlier this year and is expected to arrive next spring. Blanchett is joined in the cast list by some equally huge names, including Michael Fassbender and Pierce Brosnan.
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