Cate Blanchett says ‘Lord of the Rings’ cast didn’t rake it in. A perk: ‘I got to keep my ears’
Cate Blanchett has revealed that she and fellow cast members of one of the highest-grossing film series, “The Lord of the Rings,” weren’t paid nearly as much as you might think.
The Academy Award-winning actor appeared Tuesday with Gina Gershon on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” to promote the two’s upcoming sci-fi film “Borderlands.”
During the show, Cohen asked Blanchett, “What film that you’ve done has given you the biggest paycheck?”
Cohen guessed: “I think it’s probably ‘Lord of the Rings.’”
“Are you kidding me? No,” Blanchett said. “No one got paid anything to do that movie. ... I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears.”
The “Tár” actor — who has been vocal about pay disparities in the industry — said women in Hollywood “don’t get paid as much as you think they do.” That statement got a nod from Gershon.
Well. The “LOTR” cast got paid something, but the bucks apparently were not blockbuster. Blanchett’s “ co-star in the series Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, the Sindar Elf of the Woodland Realm, also has talked about the low salary he earned while making the movies. During an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2023, the actor said he was paid only $175,000 for all three films.
Blanchett — who played Galadriel, a Middle Earth royal elf with magical powers — also reprised her role in the “Hobbit” prequel series.
“I’ve become better at letting go lightly. But I do look back on the thing, the object, with a touch of melancholy,” the actor says of moving on from things in her life, like her Oscar-nominated film.
Her motivation for joining the cast? “I wanted to work for the guy who made ‘Braindead.’”
“Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson directed the New Zealand horror-comedy “Braindead,” which was released in 1993 in the United States as “Dead Alive.” Timothy Balme starred as Lionel, whose mother, Vera Cosgrove, played by Elizabeth Moody, is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey and becomes a zombie.
Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy made $2.9 billion worldwide, with the first film taking in $898.2 million alone.
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Blanchett could be in for a more appropriate check as she stars in the sci-fi action film “Borderlands,” based on the popular video game of the same name. Blanchett plays Lilith, an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past who reluctantly returns to her home of Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Édgar Ramírez and Kevin Hart also star in the adaptation. “Borderlands” opens in theaters Friday.
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