Cate Blanchett's Chainsaw-Fueled Lockdown Hysteria Led Her to Borderlands

Borderlands’ August 9 release is conscionable implicit a period away, and it’s inactive astir unthinkable that this movie exists. The information that it’s directed by Eli Roth and based connected the mega-popular video crippled isn’t truthful odd; rather, it’s the stacked ensemble formed that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Edgar Ramírez, the dependable of Jack Black, and... Cate Blanchett?

Lest you deliberation that Blanchett, who’s much known for melodramatic roles (though she doesn’t crook down franchise opportunities; see: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok), signed connected to play abstraction outlaw Lilith simply for a paycheck, fto the two-time Oscar victor acceptable you straight.

Speaking to Empire, Blanchett explained “covid madness” mightiness person influenced her determination to articulation the cast, nether the guidance of Roth, who she’d worked with antecedently (along with Black) connected 2018's The House With a Clock successful Its Walls. “I was spending a batch of clip successful the garden, using the chainsaw a small excessively freely,” she confessed. “My hubby said, ‘This movie could prevention your life.’”

Even with the authorities of the satellite astatine the time, she was capable to prosecute successful immoderate pandemic-friendly research. “My thumbs tin hardly power a phone, but I bought a PS5 and we played each other,” Blanchett explained. “I wanted to cognize the limits of the crippled and what fans loved astir the character. I got truly absorbed successful that full world. The cosplayers. The YouTube make-up tutorials.”

She besides told the mag that because the Borderlands movie seemed similar specified an unusual fit, that made it adjacent much enticing. “The brainsick asks are usually the things I gravitate towards; the things I could ne'er conceive of,” she said, and admitted “the gun-slinging worldly was truthful overmuch fun.” What, nary chainsaw?

Borderlands arrives August 9.

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