Australian actress Cate Blanchett said she got “free sandwiches” but was not paid well for her role as high elf Galadriel in the Lord Of The Rings franchise.
The two-time Oscar winner was asked what film brought her the biggest paycheck, while playing Plead The Fifth on US talk show Watch What Happens Live.
When host Andy Cohen guessed Lord Of The Rings, a surprised Blanchett said: “Are you kidding me? No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
When Cohen asked if she got “a piece in the back end”, meaning a percentage of profits the project makes, 55-year-old Blanchett said: “‘No! That was way before any of that, no nothing.
“I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead (Sir Peter Jackson). I mean, I basically got free sandwiches and I got to keep my ears, which is something, they fed me.
“No, no one got paid anything.”
Blanchett, who was promoting her latest film Borderlands while on the TV show, added “women don’t get paid as much as you think they do”.
It comes after the acting star said she would return as Galadriel for the upcoming Lord Of The Rings spin-off if asked, as she would “do anything with Andy Serkis”.
It was announced in May that Serkis would direct a new Lord Of The Rings film about his character Gollum, with Sir Peter Jackson, the director of the original trilogy, set to return as producer with his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
After a film screening at Glastonbury Festival, Blanchett was asked if she would return as her character in the film – which is set for release in 2026 – to which she agreed.
Blanchett played the role of powerful elven royal Galadriel in Sir Peter’s film trilogy, released between 2001 and 2003, and later reprised the role in 2012’s The Hobbit; all based on the fantasy world created by author JRR Tolkien.
