Cate Blanchett is well-aware that her starring in video-game adaptation “Borderlands” is more than a little unexpected.
The Oscar winner told Empire that leading Eli Roth‘s action film was a way to escape her “COVID madness” of quarantine at the time.
“The crazy asks are usually the things I gravitate towards; the things I could never conceive of,” Blanchett said. “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.’”
Blanchett prepared just as seriously for her role as Lillith, the leader of a ragtag group of space mercenaries, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, Arianna Greenblatt, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, as she has for any role. Blanchett turned into a gamer just for the fully-meta experience of “Borderlands.”
“My thumbs can barely control a phone, but I bought a PS5 and we played each other,” Blanchett said. “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.”
She added of the on-set stunts, “The gun-slinging stuff was so much fun.”
And director Roth couldn’t help but compare “Borderlands” to the perfect blend of his and Blanchett’s respective filmographies. “The combination of the two of us, it’s mixing ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Hostel,’ ‘TÁR’ and ‘Thanksgiving,’” Roth said. “You’ve seen her twirl a baton, but wait until you see her twirl a gun.”
Roth previously shared in a 2020 press statement while announcing the project that “Borderlands” is the culmination of his decades-spanning career thus far.
“Everything in my directing career has led to a project of this scale and ambition,” Roth said at the time. “I look forward to bringing my own energy, ideas, and vision to the wild, fun, and endlessly creative world of the game. […] It really feels like a perfect storm of creators coming together. We are out to make a new classic, one which the fans of the game will love, but also one which will find new audiences globally.”
“Borderlands” is in theaters on August 9.
