Summary
Lord of the Ringsstar Cate Blanchett recalls her low salary for appearing in Peter Jackson’s beloved trilogy. Based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien, the first installment in Jackson’s trilogy was released in 2001, introducing audiences to Elijah Wood’s Frodo as he embarks on an epic quest to destroy the One Ring. TheLord of the Ringscastincludes a host of talented actors, with Blanchett playing a memorable role as Elven queen Galadriel duringThe Fellowship of the Ring’s Lothlórien sequence, a character she would revisit in the latter two films and Jackson’sHobbittrilogy.
During a recent interview onWatch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asks Blanchett about the highest paycheck she ever received for a movie, guessing the answer to beLord of the Rings.
Blanchett, however, corrects Cohen, revealing that she was actually paid relatively little for her role as Galadriel in Jackson’s trilogy. When the host asks if Blanchett got any of the backend profits, the actor replies: “No! That was way before any of that, you know, no, nothing.” Check out Blanchett’s other comments about herLord of the Ringspay:
“Are you kidding me? No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.
“I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead. I mean, I basically got free sandwiches and I got to keep my ears…No, no one got paid anything. Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do.”
Also known asDead Alive, 1992’sBraindead, a zombie movie, marks Jackson’s third feature film.
Cate Blanchett Isn’t The Only Lord Of The Rings Actor To Talk About Low Pay
Why Some Actor Salaries Were So Low
Collectively, the threeLord of the Ringsmoviesgrossed close to $3 billion worldwide, making the trilogy a massive success. Before the release ofThe Fellowship of the Ring, however, the project was seen as a fairly big risk. The three movies were all shot simultaneously in New Zealand with an estimated collective budget of roughly $281 million. Most of the core cast members, too, though now widely recognizable, were mostly unknowns at the time.
Lord Of The Rings: 10 Actors You Forgot Were In The Movies
From Stephen Fry to Karl Urban, some Lord of the Rings fans may have forgotten that these actors had significant roles in the movies.
In an interview onThe Howard Stern Showin 2019,Orlando Bloom reveals that he was only paid $175,000 to appear as Legolasin all three movies. Though Bloom is very much a star now, he wasn’t really a known quantity at the time, and he therefore commanded a lower salary. ALord of the Ringsactor like Viggo Mortensen hasn’t publicly revealed his salary for the three films, but he was, like Bloom, not a big name actor in the early 2000s, meaning he probably wasn’t paid a significant amount more.
In his Howard Stern interview, Bloom called theLord of the Ringsmovies the “greatest gift of [his] life” and that he’d do it again for half the money.
WithLord of the Rings, Jackson had the tall order of depicting massive battles and bringing the fantasticalworld of Middle-earthto life. Evidently, one way thatthe director was able to put most of the budget onto the screenwas by not hiring massive Hollywood stars.Lord of the Ringsactors like Blanchett, Wood, and Bloom, however, were surely paid far more to reprise their respective roles in theHobbittrilogy years later.
Source:Watch What Happens Live
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a multimedia franchise consisting of several movies and a TV show released by Amazon titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The franchise is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book series that began in 1954 with The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings saw mainstream popularity with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
