Lord Of The Rings was a no-pay job for Cate Blanchett.
The Peter Jackson-directed trilogy star debunked the rumours of the movie being a high-paying job during her appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, as she participated in “Plead the Fifth” with the host Andy Cohen, where he asks his guest three hard questions and can only veto one of them.
Cohen enquired Blanchett about her “biggest paycheck” that came from a movie.
The Borderlands star told the host to make his best guess on which movie he thinks would be the answer to the question.
Cohen guessed Lord of the Rings, which seemed to shock Blanchett.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett said. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
Cohen interrogated if Blanchett got a percentage of the movie’s box office success, to which she said, “No, that was way before any of that.”
The actress shared the only reason she worked in the movie, and it was only because she “wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” Jackson’s 1992 zombie comedy film, which came out in the U.S. as Dead Alive.
“I basically got free sandwiches,” Blanchett added. “And I got to keep my ears.”
Blanchett repeated that “no one got paid anything,” later adding, “Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do.”