March 5, 2001
Cate Blanchett
Interview
Staff Reporter
Speaking of extraordinary places, tell us about playing
Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings...
New Zealand is really the most perfect place to shoot those stories. It's such a young
land mass. Unlike the coast in America or the mountains in Europe, where the land is a lot
older, it's volcanic. You're on the beach and it's quite terrifying. It was a great place
to set the story. Even though a lot of it is on set, they did do a lot of location stuff,
volcanic lakes and forest.
Is it strange to shoot three films at once like that?
I think it's probably the first time it's ever been done. It's completely crazy, but Peter
Jackson's completely crazy. For seven months, every Saturday was like going to a rugby
match. He and Viggo Mortensen [who plays Aragorn] would go off to battle 30,000. These
30,000 would then turn up in some studio in Wellington and they'd just continue the
battle. So this battle went on for seven months. They've been going for 18 months and
they're hoping to finish soon.