Cate Blanchett has suggested she was not paid well for her role as high elf Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings franchise. Speaking on Watch What Happens Live , host Andy Cohen quizzed Blanchett on which of her films gave her the biggest paycheck, guessing she must have taken home a ton of loot for starring in Lord of the Rings. But Blachett said she barely made anything for Peter Jackson's film trilogy.
"Are you kidding me?" Blanchett retorted when Cohen shared his assumption. "No, no one got paid anything to do that movie." Cohen followed up by asking if she got "a piece of the backend," to which she replied, "No.
That was way before any of that. No, nothing. "I wanted to work with the guy who made 'Braindead,'" she continued, referencing Jackson's 1992 zombie comedy splatter film.
"I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears — which is something." To wrap up the conversation, Blanchett added: "Women don't get paid as much as you think they do." The Lord of the Rings trilogy grossed over $2.
9 billion worldwide and didn't stop there, spawning The Hobbit film series, a half-billion-dollar season of television with The Rings of Power (which has a second season on the way ), and the promise of new movies , including The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim . Blanchett has not had any involvement with the franchise since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but has had numerous memorable roles in the likes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of .