It’s a dangerous business, Frodo.
Cate Blanchett claimed that the actors in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy made a poor salary, despite the franchise having grossed nearly $3 billion.
The 55-year-old actress made the confession on Tuesday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” when host Andy Cohen asked her which film she received her biggest paycheck for.
“I think it’s probably ‘Lord of the Rings,’” Cohen, 56, surmised.
“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett responded. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”
When Cohen asked Blanchett if she “got a piece of the back end,” the “Borderlands” star replied, “No! That was way before any of that. No, nothing.”
“I wanted to work with the guy who made ‘Braindead,’” Blanchett added, referring to Jackson, 62, and his 1992 zombie comedy that came out 9 years before the first “The Lord of the Rings” film.
“I mean, I basically got free sandwiches,” Blanchett said. “I got to keep my ears — which is something. They fed me.”
When Cohen asked again about Blanchett’s biggest career paycheck, she said, “Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do.”
Blanchett played elf leader Galadriel in all three “The Lord of the Rings” films, which came out in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
She reprised the role in “The Hobbit” movies, prequels to “The Lord of the Rings.”
The actress was in 2012’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” 2013’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and 2014’s “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.”
Blanchett isn’t the first actor to speak out about the amount of money they made starring in the fantasy adventure film series.
Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, said on “The Howard Stern Show” last year that he made $175,000 for the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
“I got nothing,” the 47-year-old actor said.
Bloom added, “Listen, greatest gift of my life, are you kidding me? You’d do it again for half the money.”
Blanchett and Bloom starred alongside Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Liv Tyler, Andy Serkis, Billy Boyd and more in the film franchise.
The three “Lord of the Rings” films made over $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office
Including the earnings from “The Hobbit” trilogy, the “Middle-Earth” franchise in total has grossed over $5.9 billion worldwide.
It ranks as one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time. The top of that list includes Marvel with over $30.6 billion, “Star Wars” with over $10 billion and “Harry Potter” with over $9 billion.
