While Cate Blanchett is an Oscar winner, she did not get paid much for her salary in the Lord of the Rings movies.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Blanchett was asked what her biggest paycheck was. Surprisingly, it was not Lord of the Rings.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett replied after host Andy Cohen guessed Lord of the Rings. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie. ”
He then asked if she got paid anything on the backend — it is a fair question. All three installments grossed at least $868 million worldwide. However, this series happened before actors were doing that à la the MCU.
“I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” Blanchett said of Peter Jackson. “I basically got free sandwiches. And I got to keep my ears.”
At the end of the day, “Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do,” she said.
So, while Cate Blanchett did not get paid much for Lord of the Rings, she has gone on to have a magical career. She has won two Oscars, four Golden Globes, and countless other awards.
Cate Blanchett movies
Her breakthrough came in 1998 when Blanchett starred in Elizabeth. She played Queen Elizabeth I in the biopic. She then starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Gift, and Bandits.
Beginning in 2001, Blanchett starred as Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s iconic book series, the character also appears in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
A few years later, she starred in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio. That same year, Blanchett also starred in auteur filmmaker Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
After playing a version of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, Blanchett starred in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. She also starred in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the English dub of Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo.
In 2012, Blanchett made her return to Middle-Earth by starring in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. She would subsequently appear in the two follow-up sequels, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies.
Throughout the rest of the 2010s, Blanchett starred in Blue Jasmine, The Monuments Men, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Cinderella, Carol, Thor: Ragnarok, Ocean’s 8, and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.
More recently, Blanchett has starred in Don’t Look Up, Nightmare Alley, Tár, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinnochio, The School for Good and Evil, and Borderlands.
What is Borderlands?
Borderlands is a movie adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name. It features a star-studded ensemble with Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Édgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis leading it.
Eli Roth, best known for his horror movies Cabin Fever, Hostel, and Thanksgiving, directed Borderlands. He also co-wrote the script with Joe Crombie. However, when the movie underwent reshoots in 2023, Tim Miller (Deadpool) had to step in for Roth, who was busy with Thanksgiving.
Lionsgate held the world premiere of Borderlands on August 6, 2024, before it hit theaters on August 9.
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