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‘The Lord of the Rings’: Cate Blanchett reveals she was basically paid with “free sandwiches” for the entire trilogy

Cate Blanchett, the actress who played Galadriel in the original film trilogy of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, reveals how little she and the rest of the crew was paid for it.

The film trilogy of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ from the early 2000s is comprised of three legendary movies that were absolute box office successes and also highly valued by critics, although this does not mean that their actors had good salaries because of it. Or at least not according to Cate Blanchett, who played Galadriel both in the original trilogy and in the prequel trilogy of ‘The Hobbit’. Blanchett recently revealed that her payment was so low that she basically considers her payment to be the catering food she got while working, as well as some fun props.

Free sandwiches and elf ears for filming ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Cate Blanchett recently spoke about what she earned for participating in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films. The actress claims that she earned so little money with them that she considers that her main incentive was the free sandwiches on set.

Cate Blanchett attended the Watch What Happens Live show, and when host Andy Cohen asked Blanchett which film had made her the most money, the host of the show speculated that it would be ‘The Lord of the Rings’. But the actress responded in a perplexed manner “Are you kidding me? No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”

Cohen was surprised and thought he had assumed they had all got a percentage of the box office revenue of the movies, to which Blanchett replied that no, “That was way before any of that! No, nothing!

Cast member Cate Blanchett attends a fan event for the film "Borderlands" at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mario AnzuoniMario AnzuoniREUTERS

“I wanted to work with the guy who made ‘Braindead’”, commented the actress, referring to director Peter Jackson. “I mean, basically what I got was free sandwiches, you know. And I got to keep my ears ears. No one got paid anything. I mean women don’t get paid as much as you’d think they do.”, she continued, although at no time did she reveal a specific figure that could better put these statements in context.

Cate Blanchett is not the first person who participated in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ saga and revealed their low pay. In 2023, Orlando Bloom revealed that he got paid “only” $175,000 for his role as Legolas in the trilogy.

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