In an interview, Cate Blanchett spoke about her probably craziest role in the video game adaptation “Borderlands”. She also revealed how she prepared herself.
When you think of Cate Blanchett, film fans almost automatically think of her great roles in the “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies as the graceful Noldo Elf Galadriel, as Elizabeth I in director Shekhar Kapur’s historical films and as the failed high society lady Jasmine Francis in “Blue Jasmine”. The 55-year-old has mastered the latter like no other in Hollywood: embodying an aloof upper-class lady with class and beguiling aloofness.
However, unlike other current grande dames in Hollywood such as Nicole Kidman, Blanchett dares to step out of her acting comfort zone and repeatedly appears in films that one would not associate with her at all. For example, she played the wonderfully cliché-laden Russian agent Irina Spalko in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and the nasty Hela in the Marvel adventure “Thor: Judgment Day”.
Her involvement in Eli Roth’s fantasy film “The House of Mysterious Clocks” as the witch Florence Zimmerman, which you can stream on Amazon, also came as a surprise. She must have really enjoyed working with the genre film connoisseur, as Blanchett plays the lead role in Roth’s video game adaptation “Borderlands“. As Lilith, leader of the Crimson Raiders, she finds herself on a rescue mission on the planet Pandora, only to find herself in the middle of something much, much bigger that could affect the fate of the entire universe.
Clearly, the daring and accurate siren Lilith might be her most bonkers role yet, transporting her deep into the geek spheres. And that was exactly what attracted her to this role and this film project, as Blanchett reveals in an interview with Empire:
“The craziest demands are usually the things I’m drawn to. Things I could never have imagined. I think there was also a little bit of corona madness involved. I spent a lot of time in the garden, using the chainsaw a little too liberally. My husband told me: ‘This movie could save your life’.”
The trailer for the sci-fi adventure “Borderlands”, which is in no way inferior to the Amazon hit series “Fallout” in terms of world-building, shows how Cate Blanchett performs as Lilith:
“Borderlands”: Cate Blanchett picked up the controller for her research work
As “Borderlands” is based on an extremely popular video game series by Gearbox Software, it was only natural to take a look at the original material. Not an easy task for Cate Blanchett. Nevertheless, it paid off:
“My thumbs can barely operate a smartphone, but I bought a PS5 and we played together. I wanted to push the boundaries of the video game and find out what fans love about the character. I really immersed myself in this whole world. The cosplayers, the make-up tutorials on YouTube.”
The actress certainly didn’t have to do her own make-up during filming, but her immersion in the video game world of “Borderlands” probably helped her to better understand the scenario and the characters and to deepen her portrayal.
“Borderlands” starring Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Gina Gershon, Ariana Greenblatt, Edgar Ramirez, Haley Bennett as well as Janina Gavankar, Florian Munteanu and Olivier Richters will be released on 9 August 2024 (USA).