The Lord of the Rings trilogy is among the most commercially successful franchises in cinema history. However, as for Cate Blanchett, who played the royal elf Galadriel with magical abilities in Middle-Earth, its success did not translate to payment for the trilogy from filmmaker Peter Jackson. Talking to Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen queried Blanchett about the film she got the highest payment for while suggesting that it is Lord of the Rings. Pat came the reply from Blanchett, "Are you kidding me? No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
Blanchett also stated that she did not get any backend pay and that “I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears." She added, "Women don’t get paid much as you think they do.”
The actor also played Galadriel in Jackson's Hobbit films, which served as a Lord of the Rings prequel.
She is not the first actor to express displeasure about the payment for their work on the trilogy. In a 2023 Howard Stern Show episode, Legolas star Orlando Bloom stated that he only got $175,000 for it.
Blanchett's latest is the science-fiction film Borderlands, where she stars as an outlaw named Lilith who goes back to her native planet Pandora when Édgar Ramírez's weapons producer Atlas hires her to trace his missing child. The Eli Roth directorial also features actors Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Jack Black, and Gina Gershon.
