Cate Blanchett signed on to “The Lord of the Rings” films because she was a huge fan of Peter Jackson’s horror films, but she hadn’t “fully computed” that her voice would be the first thing you hear in the series’ opening installment, “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
That film begins with the immortal Galadriel narrating the tale of how the One Ring — and all the other rings it rules — came to be, and who each ring was given to.
“I think it was in the original scripts, but I don’t think I fully computed that it was to be the first thing, because when you first pick up a script to read it, you’re reading the story,” she told GQ in a video breaking down her most iconic roles.
She also discussed the sequence that fans referred to as “Nuclear Galadriel,” in which the elf queen considers what terrible power she might wreak if she took control of the One Ring herself.
“They were all very interested in, which I found really exciting, the fact that in order to become a force for good or positive strength, you have to have confronted the darkness within,” Blanchett said.
The screenplay for the trilogy — which was adapted by Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh and cowriter Philippa Boyens — showed that even good-as-gold characters in the book like Faramir (played in the films by David Wenham) were also briefly tempted by the power of the Ring.
“I don’t think the book necessarily leans into that heavily, although they found their Tolkien justifications for it — they were interested in the small way, you know, the bit that I’m in, teasing apart the idea of the darkness that could have been unleashed in her — that she, too, has been tempted by the Ring,” the actress said.
Of the scene, which shows Galadriel flashing black and white with an eerie distorted voice, she added, “I remember filming that, not knowing, you know — because Pete was kind of just experimenting with it — and not knowing that necessarily was going to be in the final film, right?”
She agreed with the interviewer that it “added depth” to the character.
When Jackson directed “The Hobbit,” she felt ” there wasn’t a snowflake’s chance in Hell of me reprising my role,” but reached out to the director anyway.
“I sent kind of a jokey email to Pete, saying, ‘You know, if you want to put Galadriel in, I’m free. I’ll come over.’”
Jackson took her up on her offer and she appeared along with Ian McKellen’s Gandalf.
“I was [in New Zealand] for three weeks on ‘the Lord of the Rings,’ and I think I might have been on ‘The Hobbit’ for only three days, but it was really special nonetheless,” Blanchett recalled.
You can watch Blanchett’s interview with GQ here:
