![](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/Cate-Blanchett-in-Borderlands.jpg?width=1920&height=1920&fit=bounds&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp)
The long-in-the-works Borderlands movie packs an impressive all-star main cast which includes Jack Black and Kevin Hart, but the biggest surprise was Cate Blanchett as the lead. How did that happen?
During an interview for Empire, the actress, who's done a bit of everything (including The Lord of the Rings and Marvel) over the years, revealed what really got her into Eli Roth's Borderlands, and the answer is a bit surprising.
"The crazy asks are usually the things I gravitate towards; the things I could never conceive of," she explained, potentially justifying why she's taken on lighter roles such as Thor: Ragnarok's Hela or The House with a Clock in its Walls' Florence Zimmerman. She continued: "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.'" Her answer is both funny and intriguing, and one has to wonder how much the Covid lockdown and all the following Hollywood slowdown really affected her.