Cate Blanchett Claims She Didn’t Make Any Money On ‘Lord Of The Rings’: ‘I Basically Got Free Sandwiches’

Actress Cate Blanchett said she didn’t get paid much for her work in “Lord of the Rings” despite the franchise pulling in more than $2.9 billion globally. 

The 55-year-old discussed her paycheck during a conversation with Andy Cohen on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” on Tuesday night. 

“What film have you done that’s given you the biggest paycheck?” the TV host asked. Cohen speculated that Blanchett’s highest payday must have come from Peter Jackson’s massively popular movies. The actress played Galadriel, a royal elf with magical powers, in the film trilogy. 

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“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett said when the host guessed that “LOTR” made her the most money. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”

Cohen pressed the issue, inquiring if she “got a piece of the backend.” Blanchett replied, “No! That was way before any of that. No, nothing.”

“I wanted to work with the guy who made ‘Braindead,’” she said of film director Jackson and her decision to do the film. Blanchett again referenced her allegedly low pay, saying, “I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears.” 

“Women don’t get paid much as you think they do,” the actress told Cohen.

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Last year, “Lord of the Rings” actor Orlando Bloom told Howard Stern that he only earned $175,000 working on all three movies and playing Legolas, one of the main characters in the trilogy. 

“Nothing, nothing, I got nothing. $175,000 that’s what I got,” Bloom said, adding that the trilogy paid him in name recognition instead. “Listen, greatest gift of my life, are you kidding me,” the actor told Stern. “And you’d do it again for half the money.”

Blanchett faced criticism earlier this year for referring to herself as “middle class.” 

“I’m white, I’m privileged, I’m middle class, and I think, you know, one can be accused of having a bit of a white savior complex, but to be perfectly honest, my interaction with the refugees in the field and also in resettled environments has totally changed my perspective on the world,” the actress said in May, as The Daily Wire previously reported.