Well, at least she got to keep the elf ears.
Cate Blanchett — who played the powerful elf Galadriel in “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” film series — was on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live!” Wednesday when she was asked by the host which one of her projects provided her with her “biggest paycheck.”
Before the Oscar winner could respond, Cohen took a guess that it was Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett said, appearing shocked. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
Cohen then asked Blanchett if she got a “piece of the back-end.” The “Tar” star responded with: “No, that was way before any of that … no, nothing.”
She then revealed why she decided to take the role in the franchise, which premiered in 2001 and ended in 2003.
“I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” the “Carol” star explained, referring to Jackson’s 1992 zombie comedy movie.
Blanchett added, “I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears.” “No, no one got paid anything,” she reiterated.
As for her biggest paycheck to date, Blanchett kept it vague — and pretty real — when she said:
“Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do.”
Although Blanchett basically got Smaug-ed out of her earnings, the franchise ended up being one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, having grossed $2.9 billion worldwide.
And the actor wasn’t the only elf from the series who earned a measly paycheck for their time in Middle-earth. In 2019, Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas in the series, told “The Howard Stern Show,” that he was paid just $175,000 for all three movies.
“Greatest gift of my life,” Bloom said of the experience of filming the movies and what they did for his career. “You’d do it again for half the money.”