Cate Blanchett has claimed that “no one got paid anything’ to film the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, despite it being one of the highest grossing film franchises of all time.
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The film had a budget of $281million (£220million) and made $2.9billion (£2.3billion) worldwide.
However, Blanchett claims that didn’t reflect in the actor’s paychecks on the series. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday night (August 6), host Andy Cohen asked Blanchett what film she received the biggest paycheck for before adding that he thought it would be for Lord Of The Rings.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett responded. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
Blanchett starred in the trilogy as Galadriel, a royal elf in Middle-Earth. She also later reprised her role in the Hobbit series.
Cohen went on to ask her if she “got a piece of the backend,” Blanchett replied, “No! That was way before any of that. No, nothing.” She added: “I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” she went on, referencing Jackson’s 1992 zombie comedy film.
How much money did Cate Blanchett make from Lord of the Rings? #WWHL pic.twitter.com/QDsPlFs5il
— Watch What Happens Live! (@BravoWWHL) August 8, 2024
As per Variety, other stars of the franchise have expressed how relatively little they received for their appearances in the film. Speaking to The Howard Stern Show in 2019, Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas in the trilogy, revealed he was paid $175,000 (£137,000) for his appearance in all three films.
Blanchett added: “I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears.”
NME has reached out to New Line Cinema for comment.
Meanwhile, The Lord Of The Rings franchise is set to continue in a number of new Middle Earth projects, recently confirmed by Warner Bros., starting with a 2026 film tentatively titled Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
The film will focus on the iconic character from the original trilogy, with Andy Serkis expected to return to star as well as direct. Jackson will produce alongside Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.
Mortensen recently addressed whether he would return as Aragorn for the film, telling GQ: “I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard. Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually.
“I like playing that character. I learned a lot playing the character. I enjoyed it a lot. I would only do it if I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth. I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.”
Gandalf actor Ian McKellen also weighed in on his own character returning, telling the Sunday Times he would consider it “if I’m alive”.
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