Cate Blanchett, the Australian actor and producer best known for her roles in several critically acclaimed films, including The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Aviator, the 2004 biographical drama from Martin Scorsese that ultimately led to her first Academy Award, agreed to star in Borderlands, Lionsgate’s new live-action movie based on Gearbox’s looter-shooter franchise, because she likes “crazy” roles. Blanchett, who turned 55 this year and stars in the film as Lilith, shared the news in a new interview with Empire this week, revealing that she bought a PS5 and played the games in preparation for her role in the latest movie from director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel).
Blanchett said:
- “The crazy asks are usually the things I gravitate towards; the things I could never conceive of.”
- “I think there also may have been a little Covid madness — I was spending a lot of time in the garden, using the chainsaw a little too freely.”
- “My husband said, ‘This film could save your life.’ My thumbs can barely control a phone, but I bought a PS5 and we played each other.””
- “I wanted to know the limits of the game and what fans loved about the character. I got really absorbed in that whole world. The cosplayers. The YouTube make-up tutorials.”
A look at the upcoming film:
Movie synopsis:
Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett teams up with Kevin Hart in director Eli Roth’s Borderlands. Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on the game from Gearbox and 2K, one of the bestselling videogame franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.